14 suspected drug users, gamblers arrested in raid

AMMAN — Police on Tuesday announced the arrest of 14 men in a raid a day earlier on charges of gambling and illegal narcotics use.

“Police received information that the 14 men would be gathering at one of the suspects’ homes to gamble and use heroin, so a team was tasked with investigating the incident,” Public Security Department (PSD) Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi said.

After the investigators received confirmed information about the house and its owner, “they raided it and arrested 14 men, many of whom had previous criminal records, without any major incident,” Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

A senior Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) official and Sartawi both conformed to The Jordan Times that gambling “does not count as a phenomenon in Jordan”.

“It is an isolated incident and it is not a spread practice in Jordan,” Sartawi and the AND official stressed.

Veteran lawyer Zahra Sharabati said the penalty for individuals who are convicted of gambling could reach up to one month in prison that could be substituted for a financial fine.

As for the use of heroin, Sharabati told The Jordan Times, “if it was the first time then it is three months, but if the individual is a repeat offender, then the punishment is six months in prison”.

But she added that the sentence of individuals convicted of illicit drug trafficking is 15 years in prison.

Also on Tuesday, the PSD said AND personnel implemented four raids in Naour, arresting six suspected drug smugglers seizing four automatic weapons and some narcotics.

The raid on the first house resulted in apprehending three suspects, in addition to seizing 5kg of synthetic cannabis, also known as “joker”, and a gun, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

In the second residence, AND personnel arrested one suspect in possession of narcotic pills and two automatic weapons. 

The third raid yielded the arrest of a suspected drug dealer in possession of 1kg of hashish and narcotic pills, while the fourth raid resulted in apprehending another suspected dealer and seizing a weapon and a small amount of drugs. 

After the raids, which witnessed no resistance from the suspects and led to no injuries, an investigation was initiated into these cases prior to referring the suspects to court, Petra added.