The Jordanian Armed Forces stated on Wednesday they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle weapons and a large hoard of drugs near its border with Syria.
Jordanian forces said they stopped 11 people who were trying to enter Jordan from Syria in an infiltration attempt described as “the largest in months,” an official source said according to Ammon news agency.
The source said three people were killed during an engagement, while two others were injured and arrested. The remaining six people retreated into Syria.
The source said that after searching the area, a number of weapons were seized as well as 1,307,665 Captagon pills and 2,100 Larica pills.
Earlier, Jordanian troops clashed with drug smugglers on the border with Syria, killing two people and seized a shipment of hashish and amphetamines, the military said.
The military indicated that it thwarted two attempts to “infiltrate a group of people and smuggle quantities of drugs” into Jordan.
The statement said, “rules of engagement were applied, which resulted in the killing of two people and the arrest of a third.” Furthermore, the others fled back into Syria following the incident, the statement underlined.
The amphetamines were labeled as Captagon, the street name for a drug whose chemical base is fenethylline.
Jordan hosts more than 650,000 Syrian refugees, which have sought asylum in the country following the emergence of a civil war in 2011.
The Syrian Civil War began amid various anti-authoritarian revolutions within the Middle East and North Africa region, later commonly referred to as the Arap Spring.
In the context of Syria, opposition grew against the long-term presidency of Bashar Al-Assad which later resulted in an oppressive crackdown on civilian protestors, which are also currently being judged and defined by criminal courts and international organizations, respectively, based on violations of human rights.
