AMMAN — The Customs Department Sunday seized 6
million
Captagon pills — equivalent to around 1,000kg — at the Iraq-Jordan
border crossing Al-Karamah, in what is believed to be one of the Kingdom’s
biggest drug seizures.
اضافة اعلان
A spokesman for the
Jordanian Customs Service said that
customs cadres working at the border post, in cooperation with the security
forces, were able to thwart the smuggling attempt after the drugs were
discovered inside date paste boxes.
The pills were being smuggled in two refrigerated trucks
that held a foreign number plate, Al-Ghad News reported.
Captagon, an amphetamine stimulant, is addictive and can
cause severe health and psychological problems that may end in death. It is
prohibited internationally but has a large market in the Middle East.
Syria is known to mass produce the drug, with it being
dubbed “Syria’s biggest export”. Drug manufacturing in Syria is supervised and
protected by armed militias loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad militias.
According to a recent estimate by AFP, Captagon exports from
Syria have spawned an illegal $10 billion industry.
The Kingdom has increasingly stiffened border controls and
amplified efforts to combat drug trafficking over the last few years.
On December 15, State Security Court sentenced a person to a
20-year jail term and fined him JD20,000, while two others were sentenced to 10
years and fined an amount of JD10,000 for smuggling about 2 million Captagon
pills from a neighboring country.
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