Libyan court convicts six people for illegal drug production

A court in Libya has convicted ​six people of producing the psychotropic ​substance Captagon for trafficking, the ‌latest move ​to tackle the illegal spread of the amphetamine-type stimulant. The North African nation has become a major regional transit hub ‌for synthetic drugs and other narcotics, the UN said in January. Captagon, or fenethylline, is known as the 'poor man's cocaine' and is popular in the Middle East.

The court ‌in Qubbah, a small town in eastern Libya, sentenced the first defendant to ‌25 years in prison and imposed a fine of 22,000 dinars ($3,445), the Tripoli-based attorney general office, which works for the whole country, said late on Thursday. "The remaining defendants were convicted in absentia and sentenced ⁠to life ​imprisonment, with a ⁠fine of 70,000 dinars imposed upon each," the office said on Facebook.

The statement did not reveal ⁠the quantity of the drug, but included pictures of round, light-colored pharmaceutical tablets and some others ​in plastic bags alongside metal pill-pressing dies and measurement tools. Drug gangs have exploited ⁠the tumultuous situation in the country since 2011, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said ⁠in ​its January report.

Libya plunged into a prolonged period of internal conflict and division after former ruler Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in a NATO-backed uprising that year. In ⁠October, a military brigade, operating under the Libyan National Army of military commander Khalifa ⁠Haftar, seized more than ⁠1.3 million narcotic pills after a firefight with smugglers in the southeastern town of Kufra that wounded three soldiers, according to ‌a statement ‌by the military.