Turkey seizes 11 million pills of 'Syria war drug': Reports

The Turkish authorities have seized close to the Syrian border a record haul of almost 11 million pills of the synthetic stimulant drug captagon which is believed to play a crucial part in Syria's civil war, reports said today.

Anti-narcotics police confiscated over 10.9 million pills weighing almost two tonnes in two separate raids in the Hatay region on the border with Syria this week, the official Anatolia news agency and Hurriyet daily quoted the interior ministry as saying.

Captagon, based on the amphetamine phenethylline (also spelt Fenethylline), a synthetic stimulant, is a hugely popular drug in the Middle East and produced in Syria.

It has been repeatedly dubbed as the drug fuelling Syria's civil war since its production provides income for the warring factions and also keeps fighters awake and energised over long periods.

Large quantities of the drug are also illegally smuggled abroad, with Saudi Arabia a major market where the authorities repeatedly report seizures.

Caption: Turkish soldiers in a tank observe the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane by the Kurds, from a hill at the Turkish-Syrian border, in the southeastern Turkish village of Mursitpinar, Sanliurfa province (Yahoo!)