The constant flood of captagon coming out of Syria which washes across the Middle East continued through Christmas. On Christmas Day 6 million captagon pills were seized in Jordan. The bust, occurring at the Iraqi-Jordan border, was a record haul for Jordan and demonstrates the scale of the drug trade in the Middle East.
Captagon is a popular amphetamine pill in the Middle East, sometimes referred to as the ‘poor man’s cocaine’ for its stimulant effects. The pills are mainly produced in Syria, where there is growing evidence of regime involvement. Jordan has faced huge issues at its border with Syrian traffickers smuggling captagon into their territory. Earlier this year they announced a shoot-on-sight engagement tactic for smugglers. This has been used numerous times, for example, there were clashes between border forces and smugglers in January where 27 smugglers were killed.
The 6 million pills seized on Christmas Day were hidden inside date paste, according to Jordanian authorities, and were inside two large, refrigerated lorries. Hiding Captagon pills in food is a popular tactic for smugglers and even resulted in Saudi Arabia (a popular destination for captagon smuggling) banning food imports from Lebanon.
Iraqi authorities announced they have launched an investigation into the origins of the pills. They have already arrested four individuals, three foreigners, and one Iraqi, in the Western town of Qaim which is located near the Syrian border.
The following day after one of Jordan’s biggest ever hauls, 167,000 captagon pills were siezed by the Free Syrian Army in southern Syria. The Free Syrian Army said on Twitter it carried out a raid against the drug smugglers whose destination was Jordan.
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