‘Three detained in attempted smuggling of 1.4m Captagon pills’

AMMAN — Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) agents on Tuesday announced that three people were detained last week in connection with the attempted smuggling of over 1 million Captagon pills via the northeastern border. 

The smuggled pills, totalling 1.4 million, were hidden in an iron cable and stashed in a trailer truck that was leaving Jordan for a neighbouring country, a senior AND official told The Jordan Times.

“We have been monitoring five suspects for over a month, weeks after receiving a tip that they intended to smuggle the illegal pills to a neighbouring country,” the senior official said.

He added that AND agents followed them step-by-step from the time they rented a house until they stashed the illegal pills in the iron cable and then placed the shipment in the trailer truck.

Parallel to the seizure of the drugs, the official added, agents stormed the suspects’ rented house.

“We arrested three Arab nationals during the raid, which was conducted without any major incidents,” the AND official said.

He added that the driver of the trailer truck was released “because our investigation proved that he had no knowledge of the illegal shipment”.

AND agents are searching for two other suspects who were part of the group, according to a statement released by the Public Security Department (PSD).

“The three arrested suspects were referred to the State Security Court prosecution for further questioning,” the PSD statement added.  

Drug smugglers target rich countries because one Captagon pill is worth at least JD7 in these states, while its market value in Jordan does not exceed JD1 per pill, officials have previously said.

Illegal narcotics seized during the period between May 2013 and May this year comprised 664kg of hashish, 6,719kg of marijuana, 2,466,918 Captagon pills, 331kg of cocaine, 219kg of heroin, 24kg of opium and 43,107,011 illegal drug pills.