Turkish police said Wednesday that they had seized 3.2 million captagon pills, an amphetamine-like stimulant plaguing the Middle East, in a southeastern province near the border with Syria, Agence France-Presse reported.
Officers raided two sites in an operation in Gaziantep carried out with the intelligence agency, the police posted on X.
In an address to parliament’s planning and budget committee, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said police had seized 81 tons of drugs — 31 tons of which were cannabis and 25 tons were methamphetamine — in the first 10 months of this year.
He said 9.9 million captagon pills were seized during the period from January to October 31, promising to crack down on drug trafficking.
“The fight against drugs is not only a security issue, it is also a matter of our future,” he said.
“We do not and will not allow them [drug dealers] to darken the future of our children,” he said.
Most of the captagon used in the Middle East is produced in Syria and Lebanon.