Police Seize 20 Guns Smuggled from Jordan, Arrest 2 Smugglers

Israel’s police were once again successful in thwarting an attempt to smuggle weapons from Jordan on Sunday night, the latest successful catch in recent weeks.

The police stated that several of its units operated in the Tel Arad area in southern Israel with the assistance of a police helicopter, and arrested two suspects with 20 handguns in their vehicle that were smuggled from Jordan.

The guns have a street value of about NIS 500,000.

The suspects, Palestinian Authority residents of Bethlehem in their 30s, were brought before the Magistrate’s Court in Be’er Sheva on Monday.

Superintendent Assaf Cohen lauded the operation as “a very significant thwarting of smuggling, part of the police struggle against the illegal weapons blight, combining means and capabilities, all for the sake of the security of the normative citizen.”

Similar incidents have occurred in the area in recent months, during which IDF troops and police arrested suspects in smuggling attempts and seized weapons of various types and calibers.

The IDF has said that it has recently detected an increase in the number of smuggling attempts in this area. In the first three months of 2022, Israeli forces thwarted six weapons smuggling attempts from Jordan and seized 169 weapons, compared to 51 in the corresponding time period last year, a 190% increase.

Israel’s border with Jordan, its longest, is usually peaceful. Fenced in most areas, it serves as a smuggling route for drugs and weapons from Jordan into Israel.

These weapons are sent to the Palestinian Authority, where they can be used for terrorism.