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Iraqi police recovered 250,000 captagon tablets from a school building site on Wednesday, the government said, a seizure that highlights a surge in consumption of the amphetamine-like stimulant.
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The seizure was carried out in Al-Anbar province on the border with Syria, a country considered the hub for production and trafficking of captagon which has flooded the Middle East.
Police “seized 250,000 captagon pills and one kilogram of cannabis resin from a school being renovated in the city of Ramadi”, the interior ministry said on Facebook.
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Efforts were being made to track down and arrest those responsible, it added, without elaborating.
Iraq has long been transit country for captagon, but officials say it is increasingly becoming a consumer market for the illicit drug.
The country’s security forces have intensified narcotics operations in recent months, with several high-profile seizures reported.
In March, the authorities announced the seizure of three million captagon pills at the Al-Qaim border crossing with Syria.
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Syria said at an Arab foreign ministers meeting in May that it was ready to “strengthen cooperation” with Jordan and Iraq, “affected by drug-trafficking and smuggling across the Syrian border”.
The three countries also pledged to “take the necessary measures to put an end to smuggling operations”.