Riyadh - (AFP) - Saudi Arabia announced Friday the seizure of nearly 15 million tablets of Captagon , which the authorities have been fighting attempts to smuggle and distribute for years on a large scale in the Kingdom and throughout the region.

The kingdom, which has the largest economy in the Arab world, is one of the largest markets for Captagon in the Middle East.

The government-run Al-Ekhbariya channel quoted the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority as having thwarted "an attempt to smuggle about 15 million Captagon pills in a consignment that came to the Kingdom through the Islamic port of Jeddah" in the west of the country.

The seizures were "technically hidden in a consignment of a machine for making concrete blocks." The authority said that, "in cooperation with the General Directorate for Drug Control, one person has arrested the receiver of narcotics inside the Kingdom."

Captagon is basically the brand name for a drug patented in Germany in the early 1960s, consisting of a type of stimulating amphetamine called phenethylene, intended for the treatment of attention deficit disorder and insomnia, among other conditions.

The use of the drug was later banned, turning it into a drug that is produced and consumed almost exclusively in the Middle East.

The Kingdom regularly announces seizures of Captagon pills, which come mainly from Syria and Lebanon through shipments, especially fruits and vegetables. Customs said it seized 119 million pills last year.

A report prepared by the Washington-based New Lines Research Institute in April stated that the trade in narcotic Captagon pills expanded significantly in the Middle East during the year 2021, exceeding $5 billion.

Figures for 2022 in the region show that smuggling continues to grow.

During the first months of this year, the Jordanian, Saudi and Iraqi authorities announced the seizure of shipments of Captagon.

And last month, Iraqi security forces shot down a glider loaded with a million pills in Basra, in the south of the country.

The Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia, have long criticized Lebanon for its lack of commitment to combating this smuggling, accusing Hezbollah of being the main driver behind the smuggling operations.