Jordan remains corridor country for drug smuggling — report

AMMAN — The World Anti-Doping Agency's recently released report indicates that Jordan remains a corridor country — rather than a destination — for drug smuggling, Interior Minister Salameh Hammad said Wednesday.

Commenting on the report, the minister said government efforts to combat narcotics are in progress in accordance with set plans and strategies. 

Hammad said his ministry works around-the-clock to combat narcotics through regular awareness campaigns highlighting their dangers at mosques, schools, universities and civil society institutions, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

He said the developments in the region and the dangers at the borders of neighbouring countries which are left uncontrolled, in addition to the influx of refugees into Jordan, all led to a 25 per cent increase this year in the Kingdom's efforts to combat drugs compared to 2015.

Efforts will continue through security raids, particularly on agriculture lands used for planting marijuana, to arrest those involved and refer them to court, Hammad said.

He added that anti-narcotics efforts helped eliminate many of these attempts, stressing the lack of awareness of the dangers of narcotics and highlighting the importance of the media's role in this regard.

On Wednesday, Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) personnel arrested eight suspected drug dealers in three raids in Mafraq, a Public Security Department (PSD) statement said.

The AND agents had been collecting information on the suspects for weeks before conducting the raid. 

A large amount of narcotic pills was found hidden inside food at the raided houses, according to the PSD. 

On Sunday, the army said Border Guards personnel seized 3,991 palm-sized sheets of hashish with a weight of 722kg and 3,592,000 Captagon pills which weighed 667.5kg in a foiled smuggling attempt.

During the second half of March, AND personnel arrested 122 suspects in drug dealing cases.

In that period, AND agents confiscated 17kg of hashish, 9kg of synthetic cannabis, 13,000 Captagon pills, and 105,000 illegal narcotic pills and medical products, in addition to 21 firearms and ammunition.