Jordanian army opens fire on Captagon smugglers

Military seizes more than 61,000 pills in latest cross-border trafficking incident

Drugs and weapons were seized on their way across the Syrian border into Jordan.

Jordanian soldiers fired on a group of drug smugglers trying to cross into the country from Syria at the weekend, causing the gang to flee and drop tens of thousands of Captagon pills, the military said on Monday.

More than 61,000 pills and almost 500 blocks of hashish were seized after the incident, in which the smugglers managed to return to Syria.

It is not clear where the gang intended to smuggle the drugs.

The confrontation was the culmination of several efforts by smugglers to cross the border in recent days, the Jordanian military said.

It said the encounters took place in the country's north but did not specify exactly where.

Jordanian soldiers patrol the border with Syria.

Also seized were four kilograms of crystal meth and several weapons, the army said.

In February, Jordanian troops opened fire on smugglers trying to bring Captagon and hashish across the border from Syria, killing two. Several smugglers were also shot dead in a similar incident last November.

There has been a wave of high-profile drug busts across the region in recent months, with Captagon, a synthetic drug closely associated with the Bashar Al Assad regime in Syria, being repeatedly seized in vast quantities across Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.