‘Border Guards foil two attempts to smuggle large quantity of drugs’

AMMAN — The Border Guards on Thursday foiled two attempts to smuggle large amounts of drugs through a vehicle and a motorbike from Syria, an official source at the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF) said in a statement. 

The smugglers were heading in high speed towards the Kingdom's border, said the statement, which indicated that the smuggling attempts took place at dawn.

Once the Border Guards at the front spotted the vehicles, they applied the rules of engagement observed under such circumstances, destroying both vehicles, according to a JAF statement.

One smuggler was critically injured, while the rest escaped back into Syria, the source added. 

The guards seized 3,640 palm-sized sheets of hashish weighing 647kg, and 390,000 Captagon pills that weighed 75kg, said the statement.

Earlier this month, Border Guards foiled an attempt to smuggle in 160,000 narcotic pills, in which a person coming from Syria was involved.

The smuggler was killed and the seized drugs were referred to the concerned authorities.

In recent remarks to the press, Border Guards Commander Brig. Gen. Saber Mahayrah said that troops on the borders with Syria foiled 280 attempts to smuggle narcotics into the Kingdom in 2015, adding that 23 million narcotic pills, mostly Captagon, were also seized. 

Mahayrah also said that smugglers use tunnels, animals and vehicles in their infiltration attempts.