Muscat – The Royal Oman Police (ROP) seized large quantities of Captagon tablets in North Batinah governorate on Monday.

In a statement, ROP said, ‘Coast Guard Police in North Batinah arrested three smugglers on a boat at sea with 1,822,000 Captagon tablets.’

Legal procedures have been taken against them, it stated.

According to drugs.com, Captagon was first manufactured in 1961 as an alternative to amphetamine and methamphetamine used at the time to treat narcolepsy, fatigue, and the behavioral disorder ‘minimal brain dysfunction’.

But by the 1980’s the US government declared it a controlled substance with no currently accepted medical use. Manufacturing of the drug ceased in the 1980s.

However, illegal manufacture has continued, and has recently escalated in the past few years in Europe and the Middle East. Some sources suggest Captagon is one of the more popular recreational drugs among youth in the region.