Dubai Customs seize 500,000 Captagon tablets

Dubai Customs has intercepted a massive shipment of Captagon tablets, a synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant, at Jebel Ali Port.

Half a million of the pills were found in a shipping container, hidden inside 77 rolls of fabric.

A customs spokesman said: “Captagon, which is one of the most dangerous types of chemical drugs, were seized.

“Officers became suspicious because some of the rolls of fabric seemed of higher density than others.”

Inspectors brought in dogs trained to sniff out drugs and found the 500,000 pills.

The container had come from an Arab country and was en route to an unnamed neighbouring country of the UAE.

The drug, Fenethylline, most commonly known by its Captagon trademark, is one of the most popular drugs of abuse in the Middle East, according to the United Nations.

Since its legal production stopped in 1986, the stimulant has been illegally produced in southern Europe and trafficked through Turkey to the Arabian peninsula.

Over the past few years, the International Police Organisation (INTERPOL) and has reported the seizure of clandestine laboratories in several countries, including Bulgaria and Slovenia. Recently, suspected Captagon laboratories were also raided in Serbia-Montenegro and Turkey.

A Dubai Customs spokesman said: “Smuggling gangs exploit the georgraphical location of the emirate of Dubai, increasing the responsibility of Dubai Customs as a first line of protection for society.”

Dubai Customs also announced that during the second quarter of 2012 it intercepted 91 million Tramadol tablets at Jebel Ali Port. All of the pills had arrived from a Asian country.

myra@7days.ae