The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has busted a clandestine laboratory in Dehradun where a Syrian national manufactured Captagon, a banned synthetic stimulant popularly known as the “jihadi drug”, and arrested an Indian national who had rented the place to another Syrian, police officers familiar with the matter said.
The officers added that the National Central Bureau discovered the laboratory on Saturday evening after interrogating the albino Ahmed, a Syrian citizen who was arrested on May 11, and was searching for another Syrian citizen who had prepared the medicine in the Dehradun laboratory.
Last week, 31.5 kg of Captagon were seized from a house in Delhi’s Neb Sarai area, where Ahmed lives, and 196.2 kg from a container at Mundra port in Gujarat. Both seizures were evaluated cumulatively $182 Crores.
Following this, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on Saturday that the NCB had seized the first ever consignment of Captagon, valued at Rs. $182 crores and a foreign national was arrested.
“Interrogation of the albino Syrian citizen Ahmed led him to the illegal laboratory in Dehradun where the pills were manufactured. The 31.5 kg Captagon found at his house in Nab Sarai was manufactured here, while the 196.2 kg Captagon found at Mundra port was imported from Syria,” said an officer familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity.
The officer added that the factory owner, Sanjay Kumar, accused the Syrian citizen $50,000 daily rent for using the building to manufacture medicine.
He added, “This is the first case that has been uncovered involving drug traffickers who manufacture Captagon in a secret laboratory.”
Kumar, a resident of Saharanpur, was earlier arrested on charges of misusing his food license to make chemicals at his factory in Dehradun in 2025, and was out on bail, police said.
“For 14 days, he had already taken it $700,000 from Ahmed and more than 200,000 pills (about 32 kg) were manufactured. A Syrian national Ahmed knew contacted Kumar and arranged the lease for the factory. The official added that the man also arranged for another Syrian to manufacture the tablet.
Captagon is a synthetic stimulant that was developed in the 1960s and later banned due to its addictive nature. Illicit Captagon tablets are now produced using amphetamine and other stimulants, and are often called “poor man’s cocaine” due to their low cost of production. It is referred to in international media and security discourse as the “jihadi drug” due to repeated allegations and intelligence linking its trafficking and misuse to extremist and conflict zone networks in parts of West Asia. The term also arises from its reported use by groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), where the drug’s stimulant effects are claimed to help users stay awake, suppress fear and fatigue, increase aggressive behavior and risk-taking, and maintain combat-like activity for an extended period. The large profits generated from Captagon smuggling have reportedly become an important source of illicit financing for extremist-linked networks.
Drug gangs running clandestine laboratories across the country have become a major challenge to security agencies. Last year, the NCB wrote to all police forces in the state, urging them to identify illegal laboratories in their jurisdictions. It also identified red flags for police to watch for, including darkened windows, surrounding surveillance cameras, strong chemical odors, unusual ventilation systems, abnormally high electrical use, large amounts of chemicals, discarded laboratory equipment, frequent deliveries of unlabeled boxes, and residents displaying evasive or paranoid behavior.
