Jordan- Customs agents seize 150,000 Captagon pills on border with Syria 

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) Jordan Customs Department (JCD) officials on Monday said agents had seized 150,000 Captagon pills hidden in two vehicles entering the country through the Jaber border crossing.

The drugs were found in two separate vehicles and their drivers were arrested and referred to the State Security Court prosecution for further questioning, a senior JCD official said.

"The suspect [the driver of the one of the vehicles] put the pills in balloons and placed them inside jars of pickles and cheese, but an agent became suspicious of the jars upon seeing the balloons and decided to conduct a manual check," the official said.

The illegal narcotics were destined for a neighbouring country, the official told The Jordan Times.

Agents found 65,000 captagon pills, weighing 13 kilogrammes, in that vehicle.

A second shipment of 85,000 captagon pills, weighing 15 kilogrammes, was found carefully hidden in a freight truck that was entering the Kingdom.

"A customs agent conducted a manual check and found the drugs hidden in different parts of the truck's body," the source told The Jordan Times.

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 praised the efforts of the customs agents guarding the borders and "preventing these dangerous substances from entering our country".