A pill that will keep you awake for 72 hours. Make hunger and thirst disappear as if they are not a need of the body. Eliminate fear completely and fill inside with a strange aggressive confidence. It sounds like a super-soldier’s medicine, but this is the real danger. Its name is Captagon i.e. Phenethylline. Its identity in the underworld is ‘Jihadi drug.’

Captagon: a drug that became a ‘monster’

Captagon did not begin as a terrorist plot, but as a medical miracle. It was in the 1960s when German scientists developed a synthetic stimulant named phenethylline. The aim was very clear and noble – this medicine was proving to be effective in treating children who are excessively playful and mischievous (which is now called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder i.e. ADHD) or those who are suffering from narcolepsy (disease of sudden sleep during the day) and depression. In the initial days, it became very popular in Europe and America and remained dominant in the market for some time, but soon its side effects started appearing.

Patients started complaining of severe visual hallucinations (seeing things that don’t exist), psychosis (loss of mental balance), heart attacks and seizures. The result was that by the 1980s, most countries of the world banned it. America had put it in the list of Schedule-1 drug (the most dangerous category) in 1981 itself. In some European countries, limited medical use was allowed until 2013, but after that it became completely illegal. Now it is produced illegally only in secret laboratories in Syria, Lebanon and Southern Europe. In countries like Saudi Arabia, this has become such a big problem that 80% of the seizures in the entire region happen there alone.

This drug is often associated with extremist groups and fighters involved in violent conflicts, which is why it is commonly called a ‘jihadi drug’.

Bullets and hawala game are raining from the sky

Captagon’s method of smuggling is no less interesting. While earlier human couriers and drones were used on the borders, now smugglers have found a new and very cheap method – Airborne Balloon System. These balloons can cross the border carrying large quantities of drugs. This is the reason that after Assad’s rule, smuggling attempts have reduced to one-third, but the success rate has increased from 25% to 57%.

Apart from this, private financial networks like Hawala and fake trade documents are effectively used to run this entire game. Investigative agencies suspect that a large part of the income from this drug trade goes to fund terrorist activities.

‘Bullet’ worth Rs 182 crore seized from Delhi and Mundra

Now this medicine has also reached the borders of India. In May 2026, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized the first big consignment of this drug under ‘Operation Respill’, whose value in the international market was estimated at Rs 182 crore. A total of 227.7 kg Captagon tablets and powder were seized. If we consider such a huge quantity, lakhs of bullets could have been made from it.

This whole matter came to light when on May 11, 2026, the NCB team raided a house in Neb Sarai area of ​​Delhi. 31.5 kg Captagon pills were recovered from there, which were cleverly hidden in a commercial chapatti making machine. It was to be sent to Jeddah city of Saudi Arabia. After this, what was revealed during the interrogation shocked everyone. On the behest of arrested Syrian national Alabras Ahmed, 196.2 kg Captagon powder was recovered from a container at Mundra Port in Gujarat. This powder was brought hidden under the guise of sheep’s wool imported from Syria.

‘Cocaine of the poor’ and black market currency

After this action, Home Minister Amit Shah wrote on social media, ‘Modi government is committed to drug-free India. We will crack down on every gram drug that enters the Indian border or uses our land as a transit route. But the story of this drug is not limited to just one big recovery.

Captagon is also called ‘poor man’s cocaine’ in the underworld, because it is very cheap to make, but once one gets addicted to it, its effect on the body and mind is no less than that of cocaine. In a way, it has become a black market currency in the war-torn areas of Western Asia.

What effect does this ‘Jihadi drug’ have on the body?

When a person swallows this pill, it attacks the brain within minutes:

• In the initial effect, heart beat increases, blood pressure becomes high and body temperature increases.
• A person feels as if he is filled with unlimited energy.
• All traces of sleep and fatigue disappear and there is a strange feeling of confidence and happiness in the mind.
• This is the ‘Khumari’ for which the fighters take it so that they can fight without stopping, without fear and with complete ruthlessness.
• Consuming it for a long time makes the body hollow from inside.
• After this comes the crash i.e. severe depression, lethargy, insomnia, severe damage to blood and nerves.

NCB’s biggest victory so far and its next battle

This action of NCB is a big victory for India, because it has exposed a new and very dangerous trend. Investigation also revealed that the arrested Syrian citizen was also connected to a secret lab in Dehradun, where this drug was being manufactured. To run this lab, a person from Saharanpur, Sanjay Kumar, had given his factory on rent for Rs 50,000 per day. More than 2 lakh pills were made here in just 14 days. This is the first case when manufacturing of this drug has been caught in India.

The danger is not over yet, NCB is searching for another Syrian citizen who is an important role in this network. Security agencies are worried that India may become just a transit point. The way it runs drug war and terror economy, its entry into India can become a big challenge for the internal security of the country.