Jordan- Captagon smuggling attempt foiled 

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) A Jordan Customs Department (JCD) official on Monday said they had aborted an attempt to smuggle 25,000 Captagon pills into the country.

Customs agents received a tip that illegal narcotics were hidden in a vehicle that was heading to Amman from Aqaba, a senior JCD official said.

"Our agents stopped the vehicle at the Wadi Al Yateem customs inspection point and after a thorough inspection, we found the pills hidden inside the vehicle," added the official, who declined to be named.

The driver of the vehicle was arrested and handed over to the State Security Court prosecution for questioning, the official told The Jordan Times.

In his initial testimony to customs agents, the driver told them that the shipment was destined for Amman.

The JCD said in a statement that it has seized around 1,200,000 Captagon pills since the beginning of the year by training customs officials to use the latest methods of combating trafficking.

"We are glad that we are aborting many attempts to smuggle Captagon pills, because we consider this a way of protecting our children at schools and universities from drug abuse," the official added.

Captagon (fenethylline) is a synthetic stimulant similar to amphetamine. Although banned in most countries in the 1980s, illegally produced and smuggled Captagon - sometimes containing amphetamine instead of fenethylline - is a common drug of abuse in the Middle East, according to web sources.

JCD Director Maj. Gen. Ghaleb Sarayreh said these efforts are part of the department's strategy to fight drug smuggling.

"Drug smuggling would harm the national economy and the security of our country and that is why we are exerting our utmost efforts and using the most advanced equipment to prevent such operations," he said recently.