14 suspects arrested in drug-related cases

AMMAN — The Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) on Wednesday announced the arrest of 14 suspects in two separate raids over the past two days.

In one major drug bust, a senior AND official said, nine people were arrested during several raids on houses where 265,000 illegal narcotic pills were found.

“We received several tip offs that these suspects were stockpiling Captagon pills at their homes to export them to a neighbouring country,” the AND official told The Jordan Times.

The official added that AND agents monitored the suspects for weeks and “decided to launch the raid while the suspects were preparing for their final stages to smuggle the pills to a neighbouring country”.

Captagon (fenethylline) is a synthetic stimulant similar to amphetamine.

The pills are usually manufactured and transported from neighbouring countries on the north via Jordan to rich countries on the southern borders, according to officials.

Drug smugglers, officials have said, target rich countries “because one Captagon pill there is worth JD7, while its market value in Jordan does not exceed JD1 per pill”.

Although banned in most countries in the 1980s, illegally produced and smuggled Captagon — sometimes containing amphetamine instead of fenethylline — is a common drug abused in the Middle East, according to web sources.

In another incident, five suspects were arrested on an Amman street attempting to sell 9kg of synthetic cannabis (locally known as joker), according to a Public Security Department (PSD) report.

Both the arrest and the raids went smoothly and without any major incidents, according to the AND official.

The 14 suspects, some of whom are Arab nationals, were referred to the State Security Court prosecutor for further questioning and indictment, according to the PSD statement.