ISIS terrorists turned themselves into fearless killing machines by drugging themselves before the Moscow massacre, it is understood.
The drug – a favourite of the terror group known as chemical courage – disables fear, allowing its fighters to kill without any unease.
Concert-goers fled in terror as masked gunmen unleashed hell during the attack
ISIS terrorists captured on video shooting up Crocus City Hall last Friday
The four terror suspects in court (Clockwise from top left) Saidakrami Murodalii Rachabalizoda, Dalerdjon Barotovich Mirzoyev, Muhammadsobir Fayzov and Shamsidin Fariduni
It is claimed suspects Saidakram Rajabalizoda, 30, Muhammadsabir Fayzov, 19, Dalerjon Mirzoev, 32, and Shamsidin Faridouni, 25, took the drug before killing 147 at the Crocus City Hall last Friday.
Blood tests showed traces of the psychotropic substance, news outlet Baza – which has sources in Russian law enforcement, reports.
The drug, known as Captagon pills, was previously used by Hamas brutes before they unleashed their barbaric assault on October 7 in Israel.
Four masked gunmen stormed the venue in Moscow on Friday night before showdown hundreds of innocent concert-goers.
In the deadliest attack Russia has seen in over 20 years, the ISIS-K terrorists killed at least 147 people and wounded almost 200 more.
Around 6,000 people were believed to have been inside the venue watching Russian rock band Picnic when the atrocity began.
The gunmen began shooting civilians at point-blank range – through glass doors, turnstiles and then the concert hall itself, traumatised witnesses said.
They even set fire to the building in an attempt to prevent anyone getting out alive.
And devastating footage showed piles of bodies outside the blackened concert venue on the western edge of Moscow.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre and even released a picture apparently showing the four suspects posing next to the death cult’s flag before storming the hall.
Russia’s security service (FSB) launched a massive manhunt on Saturday to catch those responsible and detained 11 suspects, including the four men later hauled into court.
Putin’s security services have been releasing gruesome footage of their interrogations, including a grisly video of Rachabalizoda being fed his own sliced off ear.
A second suspect Fariddun was filmed with his genitals hooked up to a battery and being given electric shocks as he foamed at the mouth.
The grotesque and public display of torture is Putin’s attempt to send a “brazen” warning of what will happen to anyone who crosses him, Russia expert Dr Stephen Hall warned The Sun.
But Putin has spewed baseless claims Ukraine was linked to the carnage – and it is feared the tyrant could force suspects to stake a claim of false allegiance to Kyiv in order to justify a revenge attack.
Experts have also warned the ageing despot could may have orchestrated the massacre as a ploy to bring back the death penalty to use against Ukrainians.
Russia expert Dr Yuri Felshtinsky told The Sun that the Crocus City Hall attack doesn’t bear the marks of a true ISIS attack and it could’ve been an inside job.
Co-author of “Blowing up Russia” with Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, Dr Yuri thinks Friday’s ambush could give the Kremlin an excuse to pursue a sick agenda.
He told The Sun: “This terrorist act might be conducted by the Russian government in order to use it as an excuse to reinstall the death penalty.”
Meanwhile, it is understood members of the terrorist cell made multiple visits to the concert hall prior to the massacre.
A day before the attack, they were spotted at a Gazpromneft gas station where they fuelled the same white Renault they would use as a getaway car, Baza reported.
What is Captagon?
Captagon is a psychostimulant which is made of a combination of amphetamine and theophylline.
It is just one brand name of a group of drugs known as Fenethylline.
The drug came into the mainstream in 1961, and was used for around 25 years as a milder alternative to amphetamines.
It was used to treat kids with ADHD and, less commonly, for narcolepsy and depression.
Unlike amphetamines, Captagon does not increase the patient’s blood pressure – meaning it could be used to treat those with cardiovascular conditions.
However, it is highly addictive – and became illegal in most countries in 1986.
Captagon keeps users awake for long periods of time.
It also makes users feel energetic and happy – which is why it has been dubbed “chemical courage”.
Addiction to Captagon is rife within the ranks of ISIS in Syria, according to a probe into the “jihadi drug” by the Saudi Pharmaceutical Society.
Suicide bombers, like Manchester terrorist Salman Abedi, are said to be pumped full of drugs before they are sent on a mission, giving them red eyes and a distinctive look of confusion.
The drug turns the terrorists into “unforgiving killing machines”.
It comes as pro-Putin politician and suspected radioactive poisoner Andrey Lugovoy alleged British and US intelligence were behind the Crocus City Hall atrocity in Moscow.
The hardline MP claimed that the links of Putin to the “Palestine movement” and ties to the Houthis meant that an ISIS grouping would not cause carnage in the Russian capital.
Lugovoy is a fugitive from justice, wanted for the murder of his compatriot Alexander Litvinenko, a Putin foe, in London in 2006.
A former FSB operative, he is alleged to have spiked Litvinenko’s tea with radioactive polonium-210 during a meeting in a London hotel.
He told a Rossiya 1 propaganda TV show: “Traitors, foreign agents – all repeated [that the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack] was a provocation by the FSB, a provocation by Putin.
“This was a 100 per cent pre-cooked story, made according to the usual scheme of British and American special services.
“They switched to the ISIS version, despite The Supreme [Vladimir Putin’s new nickname] saying that we clearly support the Palestinian movement.
“We have good political ties with the Houthis.”
Lugovoy also called for a savage attack on Ukraine’s second city.
He said: “I think Kharkiv should be de-energised to such an extent that it becomes unviable, so that those 800,000 of its residents get into cars, or carts, or walk with their bales, and get out to the West.”
APRescuers work in the burned concert hall after a terrorists attack on the building of the Crocus City Hall[/caption]
ISIS even released an alleged picture of the four gunmen posing by their black flag before the attack
Who are ISIS-K and why would they attack Putin’s Russia?
RUSSIA is reeling after four terror suspects violently murdered 139 people in Friday’s Crocus City Hall massacre in Moscow.
But despite Vladimir Putin’s attempts to place the blame on Ukraine, it is a regional branch of the Islamic State terrorist group, ISIS-K, who have stepped forward and claimed accountability for the horror attack.
Who are ISIS-K?
Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.
One of the most active regional affiliates of the Islamic State militant group, ISIS-K has seen its membership decline since peaking around 2018, with the Taliban and US forces inflicting heavy losses.
But it is feared that ISIS-K has been quietly recruiting and growing its numbers once more and is considered an ongoing threat by the US.
General Michael Kurilla, the commander of US Central Command, told Congress last March that ISIS-K was quickly developing the ability to conduct “external operations” in Europe and Asia.
Friday’s attack has seen Isis-K has take over from Chechen rebels as the perpetrators of the most serious attacks in Russia, including the bombing of the St Petersburg metro in 2017, which left 15 dead.
What attacks have the carried out?
ISIS-K has a history of attacks, including against mosques, inside and outside Afghanistan.
In September 2022, ISIS-K militants claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul.
The group was also responsible for an attack on Kabul’s international airport in 2021 that killed 13 US troops and scores of civilians during the chaotic US evacuation from the country.
Isis-K has been behind a series of smaller-scale plots, including an attempt earlier this month to attack a synagogue in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow.
Why would they attack Russia?
Jihadist terrorist movements have long posed a serious threat to Russia.
While the attack by ISIS-K in Russia on Friday was a dramatic escalation, experts said the group has opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years.
The group is also believed to see Russia as equivalent to the US in its “hatred” for Islam.
“ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years, frequently criticising Putin in its propaganda,” said Colin Clarke of Soufan Center, a New York-based research group.
Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center said ISIS-K “sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims.”
He added that the group also counts as members a number of Central Asian militants with their own grievances against Moscow.