Authorities recently confiscated a narctocis shipment consisting of over 200,000 pills that were set to be smuggled in a shipment of yarn to a country in the Arab Gulf. In confessions broadcast by the Syrian TV, Ammar Hamdan Zreir said that his role in the operation was mediating between Ahmad al-Bazazi who provided the drugs and Mohammad Hashem Shihadeh. Zreir said that al-Bazazi gave him 200 bags each containing 1,000 pills which he in turn gave to Shihadeh. For his part, Mohammad Hashem Shihadeh said that he works in packaging in shipping yarn, and that he and his father would hide drugs in black bags inside the packaged yarn spools.