Jordan has foiled two plots to smuggle millions of captagon pills through a border post near Saudi Arabia, in the biggest seizure in years of drugs smuggled by Iran-linked networks operating in southern Syria to lucrative Gulf markets.
Captagon is a major stimulant used amongst some jihadist fighters © Gov.uk
Jordan has foiled two plots to smuggle millions of captagon pills through a border post near Saudi Arabia, in the biggest seizure in years of drugs smuggled by Iran-linked networks operating in southern Syria to lucrative Gulf markets.
The haul was discovered hidden in construction vehicles at the Omari crossing, officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
Law enforcement authorities had for weeks tracked two separate operations bringing the consignment of drugs across Jordan's northern border with Syria, but unlike previous drugs busts authorities made the seizure at the Saudi border.
War-ravaged Syria has become the region's main site for the mass production of the addictive, amphetamine-type stimulant known as captagon, with Jordan a key transit route to the oil-rich Gulf states, Western anti-narcotics officials say.
Jordanian officials, like their Western allies, say that Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group and pro-Iranian militias who control much of southern Syria are behind a surge in the multi-billion-dollar drugs and weapons trade. Iran and Hezbollah deny the allegations.
U.N. experts and U.S. and European officials say the illicit drug trade finances a proliferation of pro-Iranian militias and pro-government paramilitary forces created by more than a decade of conflict in Syria.
Captagon is a major stimulant used amongst some jihadist fighters.
It is sometimes dubbed the "Jihad drug" because of this. It quickly produces a euphoric intensity in users, allowing users to stay awake for very long periods of time.
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi
Iran's top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar's prime minister on a potential deal with the U.S. to end the three-month-old war, an official briefed on the visit said on Monday, after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday that conclusions have been reached on many topics discussed in a potential 14-point memorandum of understanding, but this does not mean a deal to end the Middle East war is imminent.
In a post published Monday on Truth Social, President Donald Trump issued what amounts to a sweeping diplomatic ultimatum to the Arab and Muslim world: normalise with Israel through the Abraham Accords, or forfeit any role in the Iran agreement he is working to finalise.
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