Record drug haul comprised 14 tons of pills hidden on ship from Syria.

Police in Italy have announced the "world’s biggest ever" seizure of amphetamines, produced by ISIS militants, during a massive drug bust in the port of Salerno, south of Naples.

Italy's finance police believe that the drugs, valued at around €1 billion, were smuggled to Salerno by ISIS to fund terrorism, reports Italian news agency ANSA.

The 14-ton haul, comprising about 84 million captagon pills, was discovered hidden aboard a ship that had sailed from Syria.

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Investigators believe that a consortium of criminal gangs were involved in the shipment, which was possibly organised by the Camorra, the powerful mafia group based in the Campania region.

Captagon, known informally as the "Jihad drug", is reportedly the drug of choice among fighters across the Middle East, according to ANSA.

The pills were concealed in industrial paper cylinders and machinery designed to elude scanners, police said.