200,000 narcotic pills found hidden in plastic gallons

AMMAN — Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) personnel have foiled an attempt to smuggle a “large amount” of narcotic pills hidden in plastic gallons, and arrested the involved suspects, the Public Security Department said Saturday.

Investigators collected information that identified the suspects and the way they planned to transport the items from the Northern Badia to Amman, before smuggling the drugs out of the Kingdom.

AND agents tracked the suspects’ car in Amman until it met with another, where the agents arrested three suspects and referred them to the State Security Court prosecutor general, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AND personnel found 200,000 narcotic pills in one of the vehicles hidden in three gallons. 

Also on Saturday, a security source told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that preventive security agents apprehended a “dangerous criminal” in Zarqa’s Iskan Hashem area.

In recent incidents, suspected drug smugglers have resorted to using sheep, car tyres, biscuit packets, packages of sweets, olives, large marble blocks, door closers, book covers and children’s beds to hide illegal narcotics.

In March, AND agents confiscated an oven in which 38,000 narcotic pills were hidden.

In previous remarks to The Jordan Times, an AND official said the Syrian conflict, the refugee crisis and unrest in surrounding countries are to blame for the new illicit drug smuggling methods the Kingdom has been witnessing over the past four years.

Last year, AND personnel arrested 14,000 drug users from different nationalities, according to official figures.

Officials maintain that Jordan remains a corridor country — rather than a destination — for drug smuggling.