Members of the Syrian security forces displaying drugs at the police headquarters in Damascus, after a large seizure, on Oct. 21, 2025. (Credit: Bakr Alkasem/AFP)
BEIRUT — Syrian authorities announced Tuesday that they seized 11 million captagon tablets originating from Lebanon, one of the largest busts from the neighboring country since the fall of Assad’s regime.
In a statement, the Interior Ministry said the anti-narcotics brigade "seized a car coming from Lebanese territory, transporting about 11 million captagon tablets," in the province of Homs, which borders Lebanon.
It added that authorities are investigating to "identify those involved and determine the criminal networks linked to the operation."
Captagon, an illegal synthetic amphetamine, became Syria’s main export during the civil war that erupted in 2011, serving as a major source of illicit funding for the regime under Bashar al-Assad, who had turned the country into a narco-state. Since Assad’s fall, the new Islamist authorities have reported numerous large captagon seizures across the country.
The new Syrian authorities have accused Hezbollah, a former ally of the Assad regime, of also being involved in trafficking across the two countries’ border.
In Lebanon, authorities announced in September that they had dismantled an international drug trafficking network and stopped a shipment of hashish and captagon bound for Saudi Arabia.
The Lebanese Army also said in mid-September that it had seized around 64 million captagon pills in the Bekaa Valley, calling it one of the largest operations ever against this drug in Lebanon.
Lebanese Army and security services have stepped up the fight against drug trafficking in recent months under pressure from the Gulf countries, after these amphetamines have flooded the region.
The United States have also accused Hezbollah from captagon trafficking.
