Army foils infiltration, drug smuggling attempt from Syria

AMMAN — Eastern Military Zone personnel on Tuesday thwarted an attempt to infiltrate and smuggle large quantities of narcotics from Syrian territory. An official military source at Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF) said that Border Guard patrols, in coordination with security agencies, spotted a group of smugglers trying to illegally cross into Jordan from the Syrian border, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Quick response patrols rushed to the site and the rules of engagement were applied, which resulted in the injury of a number of smugglers and forced the others to retreat, the source said. After an intensive search of the area, 11 million Captagon pills and 4,049 palm-sized sheets of hashish were seized, in addition to a large amount of ammunition, all of which were handed over to the relevant authorities. The source stressed that the JAF will continue to deal with any threat to Jordan's borders "firmly", and will foil any attempts intended to undermine and destabilise the Kingdom's security and terrorise its citizens.