ROMA, KOMPAS.com – Italian police reportedly seized 14 tons of ISIS-made drugs worth Rp 16 trillion, making it the largest arrest in the entire world.
The illicit goods, in the form of 84 million Captagon tablets hidden in industrial products, are worth around 1 billion euros.
In the Naples Police statement, the psychotropic drug was to be sold to Europe, with the proceeds from the sale being used to fund terrorism.
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“We know that ISIS funds its terrorist activities from the sale of drugs made in Syria, which in recent years has been the world’s largest producer of amphetamines,” police said.
Law enforcement explained that the three suspicious containers initially arrived in Salermo, south of Naples, and contained rolls of paper for industry, as well as the machines.
After the roll of paper and gear was cut, the apparatus found a tablet with a picture of two half circles, a symbol of the Captagon.
Videos published by the Naples Police show the pill spilled as soon as they forcefully unrolled the scroll.
“This is the largest confiscation of amphetamines that occur throughout the world,” explained law enforcement as quoted AFP Wednesday (1/7/2020).
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Captagon, which is the name of a brand, was originally made for medical purposes. But the illegal version is referred to as “Jihad Medicine”.
The reason is that in the statement of the Italian police, the drug was widely used by ISIS members when they went into battle.
Citing the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Naples Police said the terrorist group was using the territory they controlled to sell drugs.
Once the factory was established, the authorities said it was very easy for terrorists to produce large quantities of drugs to get funds.
The police said, the amount of illicit goods which they confiscated was said to be “satisfying the whole of Europe”, without elaborating.
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“Consortium” of criminal gangs allegedly involved in drug distribution, including strong conviction of Naples mafia, Camorra, was also involved.
Law enforcement explained that the possibility of synthetic drug production and distribution practices in Europe has stopped since the corona virus struck.
“Many smugglers, including the consortium, turn to Syria which, apparently, does not relax its production,” explained the police.
Two weeks ago, also in the port of Salermo, police also seized containers shipped from Syria containing 2,800 kilograms of marijuana.
In addition there are also more than one million amphetamines pills with the same symbol as seized on Wednesday local time.
Daily The Republic reported, police were suspicious because the container, which appeared to contain tables and sports clothes, was aimed at Libya through a Swiss company.
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