Police find over 1,000 pills in tent selling vegetables, fruits

AMMAN — A vegetable vendor in the capital’s Rabia neighbourhood was referred to the State Security Court (SSC) on Thursday after police reportedly found over 1,000 pills in his tent, official sources said.

A Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) team tasked with dismantling illegal tents that sell vegetables and fruits on the street discovered the pills, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

“The GAM team, accompanied by a police force, were in the process of dismantling the tent when they found 1,050 pills hidden inside,” Petra said.

The Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) was immediately notified and the pills were handed over to experts there, a senior AND official said.

“We examined the pills and concluded that only 50 were Captagon, which is illegal, and the rest were not classified as illegal narcotics,” the AND official told The Jordan Times.

The official said AND agents questioned the vendor and “it was determined that he was not a drug dealer.”

“It was clear to us that the pills in his possession were for personal use so we referred him to the SSC prosecution to face charges on that offence,” the AND official added.

Captagon (fenethylline) is a synthetic stimulant similar to amphetamine. 

Although banned in most countries in the 1980s, illegally produced and smuggled Captagon — sometimes containing amphetamine instead of fenethylline — is a common drug abused in the Middle East, according to web sources.