The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) have jointly published the report “Captagon Trafficking and the Role of Europe”. It showed that European states in particular serve as transshipment points for the drug.
This is mainly done via sea container transports. The production as well as the consumers are mainly not located in Europe. The illegal production of the tablets takes place mainly in Syria and Lebanon. The destination region is mainly states on the Arabian Peninsula, especially Saudi Arabia. There, they represent the most widespread form of consumption for amphetamine. In most countries of the European Union, things are different. There, the nasal consumption of amphetamines as a powder drug is in the foreground. In order to disguise their origin, Captagon tablets are often transported via European ports before they arrive in their actual country of destination, according to the report.
Captagon was the brand name of a psychoactive drug containing the active ingredient fenetylline. The drug was produced by a German pharmaceutical company in the 1960s and used, among other things, to treat attention deficit disorder (ADHD). Due to severe side effects, however, it was withdrawn from the market in the 1980s.
