Officials of the Nigeria Customs Service, Department of State Services and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have intercepted a consignment of Captagon pills at the Apapa port in Lagos.
According to Drugs, a United States prescription medicine website, Captagon was first manufactured in 1961 as alternative to amphetamine and methamphetamine used to treat narcolepsy, fatigue, and the behavioural disorder “minimal brain dysfunction”.
Nicknamed ‘the jihad drug’, Captagon is used by combatants to stay awake for long periods of time and to “enhance courage and bravado”.
Its long-term use causes extreme depression, lethargy, insomnia, occasional palpitation of the heart, blood vessel toxicity and malnutrition.
The discovery was disclosed in a statement by Apapa Command Comptroller, Malanta Yusuf, on Wednesday.
Yusuf said that the pills found by the government agencies were concealed inside an imported machine.
This is just as he stated that they have apprehended one suspect in connection with the seizure.
Daily Post reported that the dismantling of cylinders in the machine is ongoing.
The comptroller said more details will be made public at the end of the examination and counting process.
Yusuf confirmed Captagon has been identified as one of the notorious stimulants used by ISIS insurgents and other fighters involved in the Middle East unrest.
