Four killed in attempt to smuggle drugs from Syria: Jordan military

Four people were killed in an attempt to smuggle large amounts of drugs from Syria to Jordan, the kingdom's armed forces said on Sunday.

Some smugglers were also wounded while others escaped by going back to Syria, it said.

The Jordanian armed forces did not specify who killed or wounded the people involved.

However, they said that they had confiscated 637,000 Captagon pills, 39,600 Tramadol pills, and 181 envelopes containing cannabis as a result of the operation.

Jordan is both a destination and a main transit route to the oil-rich Gulf countries for Syrian-made cheap amphetamine drug known as captagon, also dubbed as poor-man cocaine.

War-torn Syria has become the region's main production site for a multi-billion dollar trade also destined for Iraq and Europe. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime denies involvement in drug making and smuggling.

In January, Jordanian soldiers killed at least 27 armed smugglers and wounded others as they crossed the border. 

Jordanian armed forces vowed to deal with any future smuggling operations "with an iron fist".