DHKP/Captagon

Turkish police seized a huge shipment of amphetamine tablets near the border with Syria on the night of Nov. 19. The operation seized a record amount of 1,800 kilograms of the drug Captagon in Hatay, Turkey’s southernmost province that borders northwest Syria. The seized shipment of 11 million tablets is thought to have been bound for the Gulf.

The drug is also said to be manufactured and sold by the warring sides in Syria to fund the civil war[1]. The tablets were found by police in Hatay in two operations. Police first seized more than 7 million tablets produced in Syria, hidden among a shipment of oil filters bound for Gulf states, according to an official speaking to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity. Police later raided a depot in Hatay and discovered 3.6 million packaged tablets. 

[1] Hatay connection once again ties the drugs to Syria based Marxist-Leninist party and terrorist group DHKP/C. There are reports that DHKP-C members are fighting in the ranks of the regime against rival groups in Syria. Syrian colonels are said to have trained DHKP-C militants and sent them to Turkey to launch many attacks. 

See Also: Fuelling extremism on the left.

Mavi Boncuk |

In the 1960s and ’70s, doctors prescribed Captagon for narcolepsy, depression, and hyperactivity. First synthesized in 1961 by the German pharmaceutical company Degussa AG, Captagon was marketed as a milder version of the stimulants previously used for those conditions. But evidently its advantages over other drugs were less obvious than the manufacturer hoped, because by 1981 the U.S. government had placed Captagon in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, indicating that it has “no currently accepted medical use.”SOURCE 

The use of stimulants by soldiers is nothing new. Both German and U.S. forces used amphetamines during World War II, and American pilots continue to rely on them to fight fatigue and maintain alertness. Captagon, a.k.a. fenethylline, is a combination of dextroamphetamine, the main ingredient in Adderall, and theophylline, a stimulant in the same class as caffeine that can be found in tea and chocolate. According to a 2014 post at Smarter Nootropics, fenethylline “doesn’t appear to be active in its own right.” Rather, “it’s a prodrug that the liver separates into both of these compounds.” Hence “the effects subjectively would be very similar to taking Adderall XR and drinking tea or coffee,” although “the effects are going to be milder than the same dose of Adderall,” since “half of the molecule” is the caffeine-like theophylline.

The evidence of Captagon’s amazing powers consists entirely of subjective testimonials and recycled anecdotes. “There was no fear anymore after I took Captagon,” an unidentified Syrian fighter says in Captagon: Syria’s War Drug, the BBC documentary. Washington Post reporter Peter Holley (the same reporter who last June claimed that the synthetic cathinone known as flakka “causes users to rip off their clothes and attack with super-human strength”) repeats that quote, and so does Washington Times reporter Kellan Howell.