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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) on Saturday announced the arrest of 16 suspected drug dealers and addicts in one of the capital’s neighbourhoods.

AND agents arrested the six dealers and 10 addicts, over a four-day period in Amman’s Hai Nazzal suburb, Public Security Department Spokesperson Maj. Amer Sartawi said.

“Our offices received complaints from Hai Nazzal residents about illegal drug activities by several individuals who were causing disturbances in the neighbourhood,” Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

He added that the department decided to launch a campaign to arrest the suspects, and that “no one was injured during the operation”.

“Surveillance teams were dispatched to the neighbourhood and monitored several suspects, leading to the arrest of six drug dealers while they were attempting to sell illegal narcotics,” the police official said, noting that the 10 drug addicts were arrested in the same campaign.

The suspects were referred to the State Security Court prosecutor for further questioning.

Sartawi stressed that “such campaigns are ongoing, and the department welcomes any tip from citizens on similar illegal activities and will follow up on it”.

AND officials have said that the number of drug addicts in Jordan in 2012 constituted less than 1 per cent of the population, estimated at over 6 million.

In 2011, between 167 million and 315 million people between the ages of 15 and 64 were estimated to have used an illicit substance in the preceding year, according to the World Drug Report 2013 issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

*JORDAN TIMES