The delivery of Tramadol pills, with a street value of €50 million, was intercepted at the southern Italian port of Gioia Tauro according to a statement released by customs police. The shipment from India was destined for Libya, the police said.
Gioia Tauro, located north of Reggio Calabria, is Italy’s largest container port. The US Drug Enforcement Administration collaborated with the Italian police.
Some 24 million tablets of a synthetic opiate used by “Islamic State” (IS) militants to fund both terrorist attacks and to prepare fighters for combat, were seized authorities said on Friday.
Tramadol, a powerful painkiller only available on prescription, is known as the “fighter’s drug” and is widely used by ISIS soldiers as a stimulant and to increase resistance to physical effort, Italian authorities said.
Taking the drug lowers inhibitions to violence and prolongs a fighter’s ability to remain alert for combat, they say.
The chief prosecutor for the city of Reggio Calabria, said illegal drug sales were also used “to finance the terrorist activities planned and carried out around the world”. The city’s port is a node for trade with the Far East.
A similar drug bust was carried out in Greece last year, with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reportedly also tipping off the Narcotics and Arms Division of Greece’s Financial Crimes Unit (SDOE) about the haul due to arrive from India — with an estimated street value of $13 million.
An even larger operation was launched in May in Italy’s northern port of Genoa.
Italian police said the consignment had also come from India and would have been used for two purposes: to help finance Islamist terrorism and for use by jihadist fighters as a stimulant and to heighten resistance to physical stress.
Italian police said the drug haul could have raised €75m on the open market, The BBC reported.
Abuse of tramadol was described by a report this year as “rampant” in the ranks of Boko Haram fighters in Nigeria “enabling atrocities on both sides of the conflict”.
This opioid substance is hugely popular, because it produces effects similar to heroin, and has a reputation for increasing men’s sexual stamina. According to the Economist, Tramadol became even more widely available in Egypt after president Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow, when the state-run border control broke down.
Reuters reported that the receiver was “characterized as being suspect of having relations with the Islamic State”.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was able to confirm that large quantities of Tramadol are frequently trafficked between New Delhi and Libya, and that the North African country has emerged as a “significant hub for Tramadol trafficking”.
According to the DEA, the drug “poses potentially significant security threat to the region”.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime noted that India’s vast pharmaceutical industry was diverting drugs like Tramadol on a large scale from legitimate manufacturers to the black market by exploiting legal loopholes.
The Islamic State, also known as Daesh, emerged in the aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. It gained notoriety in 2014 after the capture of Mosul in Iraq.
