On Tuesday, June 1st, Jordanian authorities announced that they had foiled an attempt to smuggle thousands of narcotic pills into the Kingdom from Syrian territory.
A source in the General Command of the Jordanian Army and Armed Forces said in a statement that the military thwarted an attempt to infiltrate and smuggle 377,000 captagon pills from the eastern military zone.
The Jordanian operation was carried out in coordination between the eastern military region, the Directorate of Military Security, and the Anti-Narcotics Department, the General Command’s source said.
In his statement, the source indicated Jordanian General Command’s military forces clashed with smugglers attempting to cross into Jordan. The fighting forced the smugglers to flee towards the Syrian border.
Second attempt
According to the statement made by the source, the Jordanian army will deal vigorously with any smuggling attempt, in order to protect its borders and defeat those who wish to compromise Jordan’s national security.
Last week, the Jordanian army announced the seizure of a shipment of narcotics from Syrian territory. The shipment included 1.1 million captagon pills and 7,620 kg of cannabis.
Earlier, a report published by the Financial Times highlighted the growing drug trade in Syria and Lebanon, stating that “Although Captagon trafficking was once among the funding streams utilized by anti-state armed groups, consolidation of territorial control has enabled the Assad regime and its key regional allies to cement their role as the prime beneficiaries of the Syrian narcotics trade.”
In 2020, Security Authorities in several Arab and European countries seized 18 shipments of narcotics and captagon pills being smuggled into their territories from Syria, through land or sea. These seized shipments were caught in several countries, including: eight in Jordan, five in Egypt, one in Saudi Arabia, one in Italy, and one in Armenia. The seized drugs amount to 118,574,778 narcotics pills and nearly 15 tons of hashish.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
