Syria seizes 142,000 captagon pills bound for Jordan

LONDON: Anti-narcotics authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic thwarted an attempt to smuggle 142,000 captagon pills into Jordan.

The Interior Ministry announced Thursday that smugglers used balloons equipped with GPS tracking and remote-control methods to transport drugs into Jordan near the southern territory, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.

Criminal networks have long attempted to exploit Jordan as a transit point for smuggling drugs in the Middle East that are typically bound for Gulf countries from Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Smugglers are increasingly employing drones and balloons to transport narcotics into Jordan through the 362-km border with Syria. This month, the Royal Jordanian Air Force launched strikes against drug and weapons warehouses in the Druze-majority southern Syrian province of Sweida.