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Dubai Police bust gang smuggling drugs worth Dh4.4 million hidden in clothing buttons
Authorities discovered the drugs stored in a Dubai apartment and a secondary location in a neighbouring emirate
- PUBLISHED: Sun 31 Aug 2025, 8:12 AM UPDATED: Sun 31 Aug 2025, 8:55 AM
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Dubai Police successfully busted a gang of three attempting to smuggle 89,760 Captagon tablets hidden inside clothing buttons.
The drugs, weighing Dh18.93kg and valued at Dh4.4million, were seized before they could be trafficked abroad. Authorities discovered the drugs stored in a Dubai apartment and a secondary location in a neighbouring emirate.
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According to Dubai Police, the suspects — two Arab nationals and one Asian national — were preparing to smuggle the pills to a neighbouring country under the direction of a leader based abroad.
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A specialised task force was immediately formed, with the authorities monitoring every move of the suspects — their movements, vehicles, and residences were placed under continuous surveillance.
Officers eventually raided the premises where the pills were hidden inside clothing buttons — a method the gang thought would evade detection.
The authorities successfully intercepted the narcotics before they got smuggled outside the country.
The operation, dubbed 'Toxic Buttons', was conducted in close coordination with Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control (GDNC).
Dubai Police emphasised the role of international collaboration, reflecting the UAE leadership’s commitment to combating organised crime worldwide.
What is Captagon?
Captagon is a powerful, addictive stimulant that was originally developed in the 1960s by the German pharmaceutical company Degussa Pharma Gruppe. It was marketed as a treatment for conditions such as attention deficit disorder, narcolepsy, and as a general central nervous system stimulant.
Captagon tablets contained fenetylline, a synthetic compound belonging to the same family as amphetamines. Fenetylline works by stimulating the nervous system, providing increased alertness and energy.
In 1986, fenetylline was classified as a Schedule II substance under the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, leading most countries to stop producing Captagon. The International Narcotics Control Board said in 2011 that no country has legally produced fenetylline since 2009, and today it is primarily encountered in illegal markets.
After official production of Captagon stopped, some of the remaining supplies were smuggled out of Eastern Europe — particularly from Bulgaria — into the Middle East, according to Al Jazeera. By the 1990s and early 2000s, counterfeit Captagon tablets began to be manufactured in Bulgaria.
