Minister of Commerce Mehmet Muş announced that customs officers at Istanbul’s Ambarlı Port seized 12.3 million Captagon pills, the biggest seizure of its kind, on Saturday. The pills, weighing a total of 2.09 tons, were discovered inside a shipping container. The container was unloaded from a vessel arriving in Türkiye and then to be loaded to another ship on a transit voyage from Türkiye. The arrival port and destination of the container were not disclosed.

The minister said a foreign national, believed to be the "organizer" of the smuggling, was caught at the airport in Istanbul as he tried to flee.

Ambarlı is a busy port on Istanbul’s European side, serving as a hub for cargo vessels. Customs officers and counter-narcotics police have seized tons of drugs from ships arriving at the Ambarlı port in the past, especially from South American countries.

Türkiye is a transit route for drug smugglers operating between Asia and Europe. Drugs from Asia are smuggled into Europe via Türkiye, while synthetic drugs produced in Europe are being smuggled into the Middle East. The country, however, stepped up its efforts to stamp out drug trafficking from which terrorist groups and international gangs profit.

In July, nearly 20,000 suspects were detained in nationwide counter-narcotics operations in more than 15,000 operations, according to Interior Ministry figures. Along with 1.7 tons of cannabis and 242 kilograms (533.5 pounds) of heroin, security forces seized some 30,000 Captagon pills in July across Türkiye.

Captagon, created in the 1960s as an alternative to other synthetic drugs, has proliferated in the Middle East in recent years and several terrorist groups, including Daesh, are believed to profit from its trade.

Anti-narcotics departments in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other countries recently announced drug seizure figures for 2022 that suggest the Captagon trade is still growing. The vast majority of Captagon, which derives its name from a once legal drug against narcolepsy, is produced in Syria and Lebanon and smuggled to its main consumer market in the Gulf. It is used by the super-rich in Saudi Arabia as a party pill, by armed men for the feeling of invincibility it produces, as well as by poorer people who need to work several jobs to make ends meet. Based on the street value of Captagon and the most conservative production estimates, the growing Captagon economy is estimated to be worth $5 billion.