Jordan has foiled an attempt to smuggle drugs into the kingdom from its border with Syria, seizing 900,000 Captagon pills and hashish.
Jordanian army has ramped up its operation against drug smuggling from Syria which, it said, has been increasing dramatically. Troops found 900,000 Captagon pills and 154 palm palm-sized sheets of hashish.
On May 22, the JAF said that troops on Jordan’s eastern borders with Syria opened fire on people who attempted to infiltrate the kingdom, killing four of them and injuring others. The army said that the smugglers left behind 181 palm-sized sheets of hashish, 637,000 Captagon narcotic pills, and 39,600 tramadol pills.
The largest operation unveiled so far was on Jan. 27 when the Jordanian army announced that it had killed 27 infiltrators as they tried to smuggle “large amounts” of narcotics from Syria into the kingdom. The army said that the operation in late January came after the directives of the JAF chairman to change the rules of engagement. Jordan has been warning of Syria turning into a narco-state, posing cross-border threats to the kingdom, the region, and the rest of the world.
Director of JAF Military Media Department Col. Mustafa Hiyari recently accused Iran and Syria of sponsoring drug dealers operating in Syria, adding that the Jordanian army is waging a “drug war” on the northern borders. In remarks to the government-owned Al-Mamlaka TV, Hiyari also said that drug trafficking to Jordan is supported by “uncontrolled groups” within the Syrian army and pro-Iranian groups.
“We are facing a drugs war along the borders, led by organizations supported by foreign parties. These Iranian militias are the most dangerous because they target Jordan’s national security,” Hiyari said.
Political analyst Amer Sabaileh voiced confidence in the Jordanian army’s ability to control drug trafficking from Syria, explaining that the narcotics industry has expanded in the southern parts of Syria, especially after the withdrawal of Russian forces from there. Jordan’s King Abdullah has recently warned that a Russian withdrawal from southern Syria due to the Ukraine war would allow Iran-backed militias to fill the void.
King Abdullah, in an interview in May for the Battlegrounds series by Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, said that the presence of the Russians in the south of Syria was a source of calm.
“That vacuum will be filled by the Iranians and their proxies, so, unfortunately, we are looking at maybe an escalation of problems on our borders,” the king said. The JAF has said that 361 smuggling attempts from Syria were foiled in 2021, leading to the seizure of about 15.5 million pills of narcotics of different types.
The army said that it prevented more than 130 smuggling attempts from Syria in 2020 and seized about 132 million Captagon pills and more than 15,000 sheets of hashish.