JORDAN

Fighting organized crime in Jordan

Jordan is strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe, sharing borders with four Middle Eastern countries and small coastal borders on the Dead Sea and Red Sea. It is also located in a crisis conflict zone, making its geographic location attractive to organized criminal groups wanting to carry out smuggling operations across the region, or to cross it on their way to other continents.

Jordan’s crime areas of priority concern include trafficking in drugs, firearms, people and fake goods, as well as cybercrime, with these crimes often leading to money laundering and violent crime.

The international characteristics of these crime areas and their links with crime networks around the world make the role of the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) in Jordan fundamental to maintaining national and regional security.

INTERPOL in Jordan

The NCB for Jordan is called the Arab and International Police Department. It is part of Jordan’s national police force, which is called the Public Security Directorate (PSD). It links Jordanian law enforcement agencies to their counterparts worldwide and plays a central role in protecting the country and surrounding region from the expansion of international organized crime.

By providing globally-sourced intelligence about regional crime, the NCB helps police officers across Jordan to detect and investigate the flow of illicit goods along trafficking routes in and around the country.

The NCB helps the PSD to work with police forces across the world in investigating crime and bringing criminals to justice. The NCB in Amman regularly takes part in INTERPOL-led police operations in the region.

Law enforcement in Jordan

Law enforcement services in Jordan are provided by the Public Security Directorate which is part of the Ministry of Interior.

Under the command of a Director General, five regional security commanders oversee the police activities of the Metropolitan, Northern, Southern, Central and Al-Aqaba regions in addition to the Royal Bedouin forces.

Constantly tailoring its internal structure to accommodate emerging crime areas created by technological, social and economic developments, PSD has established a number of new units recently to tackle cybercrime, human trafficking, people smuggling, violent extremism and intellectual property crimes.

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