The Syrian Ministry of Interior announced on Monday that a qualitative security operation had been carried out in the city of Latakia, resulting in the seizure of more than four million Captagon pills, which had been tightly hidden inside industrial equipment used for tahini production, in preparation for smuggling them out of the country.
A statement published by the ministry on its Telegram account stated that the operation was carried out "in cooperation between the Latakia Security Directorate and the Anti-Narcotics Department," describing it as one of the largest operations carried out since the beginning of the year.
Director of the Anti-Narcotics Department, Khaled Eid, said in a statement carried by the SANA news agency that "accurate information was received from administration sources regarding a drug shipment hidden inside industrial equipment." He added that "the location was carefully tracked in the city of Latakia, and the raid was carried out with the support of K9 units specialized in detecting narcotics."
Eid confirmed that the seized quantity "was prepared for smuggling and hidden professionally," noting that a number of those involved had been arrested and the equipment used to conceal the drugs had been confiscated.
This operation is part of a continuing series of security campaigns aimed at dismantling drug smuggling networks and uncovering their warehouses. These operations emerged and flourished during the reign of the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad, whom local and international groups accuse of transforming Syria into a regional platform for the production and smuggling of Captagon.
Syria has been one of the countries most closely associated with regional drug trafficking in recent years, amid intense official efforts to change this image by tightening oversight, exposing networks, and drying up sources of production.
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