Jordanian army says two drug smugglers killed on border with Syria

The kingdom is a transit centre of Captagon smuggling into the Arabian Peninsula

Jordanian soldiers stand guard on the border with Syria. Getty

Two smugglers were killed when Jordanian troops intercepted drugs that were being transported from Syria at the weekend, the kingdom's military has said.

It is the second time in the past several weeks that Jordan's military has announced the killing of smugglers on the border with Syria.

Captagon pills worth an estimated $4 billion are brought from areas under the control of the Syrian regime to Jordan every year, countries in the region say.

Jordan's army late on Saturday said the bodies of two traffickers were found after searching the area where its personnel foiled their operation. It gave no details on the location or how they were killed.

“The large quantity of seized drugs failed to pass through and poison the homeland,” the military said.

The military said on January 27 that it had shot and killed 27 smugglers in an operation on the border with Syria. The announcement came 11 days after drug traffickers killed two Jordanian soldiers in an ambush and fled to a Syrian regime area across the border.

Jordan is a market as well as a major smuggling route for Captagon into the Arabian peninsula.

Curbing drug flows from regime areas in Syria has been a continuing Jordanian policy in the past two years, while accommodating the government of President Bashar Al Assad by reopening borders and resuming trade. But despite Jordan's re-engagement with Mr Al Assad, there have been few signs that the volume of smuggled drugs has reduced.