{"id":50177,"date":"2026-11-06T12:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T10:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=50177"},"modified":"2026-11-06T15:00:58","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T13:00:58","slug":"libyan-court-convicts-six-people-for-illegal-drug-production","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/libyan-court-convicts-six-people-for-illegal-drug-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Libyan court convicts six people for illegal drug production"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">A court in Libya has convicted six people of producing the psychotropic substance Captagon for trafficking, the latest \u200bmove to tackle the illegal spread of the amphetamine-type stimulant.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The \u200cNorth African nation has become a major regional transit hub for synthetic drugs and other narcotics, the United Nations (UN) said in January. Captagon, or fenethylline, \u200bis known as the &#8216;poor man&#8217;s cocaine&#8217; and is popular \u200bin the Middle East.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The court in Qubbah, a small \u2060town in eastern Libya, sentenced the first defendant to 25 \u200byears in prison and imposed a fine of 22 000 dinars ($3,445), the \u200bTripoli-based attorney general office, which works for the whole country, said late on Thursday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;The remaining defendants were convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment, \u200bwith a fine of 70 000 dinars imposed upon each,&#8221; the \u200boffice said on Facebook.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The statement did not reveal the quantity of the drug, \u200cbut \u2060included pictures of round, light-colored pharmaceutical tablets and some others in plastic bags alongside metal pill-pressing dies and measurement tools.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Drug gangs have exploited the tumultuous situation in the country since 2011, the \u200bUN Office \u200bon Drugs and \u2060Crime said in its January report.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Libya plunged into a prolonged period of internal conflict and division \u200bafter former ruler Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in \u200ba \u2060NATO-backed uprising that year.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>In October, a military brigade, operating under the Libyan National Army of military commander Khalifa Haftar, seized more than \u20601.3 million \u200bnarcotic pills after a firefight with \u200bsmugglers in the southeastern town of Kufra that wounded three soldiers, according to a \u200bstatement by the military.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":47654,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-50177","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Libya plunged into a prolonged period of internal conflict.","published_date":"","news_description":"Libya plunged into a prolonged period of internal conflict.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50193,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50177\/revisions\/50193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=50177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}