Jordan- Customs personnel seize weapons shipment 

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) Jordan Customs Department (JCD) personnel on Sunday seized a shipment of weapons that were in a container in Aqaba destined for Iraq, officials said on Monday.

JCD personnel became suspicious of the container, whose contents were listed as including furniture, a senior customs official told The Jordan Times.

"When we opened the container we found light weapons, binoculars, police batons, knives and other weapons," added the official, who preferred to remain unnamed.

Meanwhile, customs officers on Monday seized 1,600 cartons of cigarettes that were hidden in two vehicles at the Ramtha border crossing, the official said, noting that the contraband was hidden in the two vehicles.

He added that both vehicles were seized "until their owners pay the fines and customs duty".

A JCD statement quoted its director, Maj. Gen. Ghaleb Sarayreh, as stressing the importance of combating all kinds of smuggling in order to ensure "economic and social stability in the country".

Also yesterday, the Public Security Department announced the arrest of a man who had hidden 600,000 pills of Captagon in his house on the desert highway.

The suspect, who was not identified by officials, was arrested by Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) agents. The department received a tip that he was storing illegal drugs, which were to be smuggled to a neighbouring country, according to the PSD.

"AND agents monitored the suspect and arrested him in an Amman neighbourhood; then when they searched his house they found the illegal shipment hidden in various places," a PSD statement said, adding that the suspect was referred to the State Security Court prosecutor.