The Italian police intercepted a drug transit of 24 million pills of the painkiller Tramadol in Gioia Tauro en route Libya from India, The Guardian reported.
Police suspect that the pills was to be sold to ISIS in north Africa and West Asia. The pills are estimated to cost around 2 Euros each, taking the net worth of the narcotics haul to almost 50 million Euros.
Earlier in May, another batch of 37 million pills of the synthetic opioid-like drug was seized by the Italian police. Labelled as blankets and shampoo, it was bound for Misrata and Tobruk in Libya.
These pills have a two fold purpose: ISIS sells them to its fighters to suppress pain and increase resilience to stress and it also finances the terrorist group.
Other terrorist organisations like the Boko Haram are known to feed the drug to its soldiers with dates before sending them off to missions. Moreover, ISIS fighters are known to take Captagon and amphetamine that prevents hunger and fatigue.
The shipment from May 2017 was traced back to an Indian pharmaceutical company which allegedly sold the pills for $250,000 to a Dubai-based importer, which was first shipped to Sri Lanka before disappearing from the freighter's document, PTI reported.
The Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro is a well-known hub of drug shipments, especially cocaine.
Speaking to the Italian newspaper La Republica, Gaetano Paci, a prosecutor for the anti-mafia district directorate said, "Everything passes through Gioia Tauro, so it comes as no surprise to find a trafficked substance of this kind there."
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