A Jordanian military source announced that the eastern military region of the country has thwarted on Thursday Oct. 21, an attempt to smuggle quantities of narcotics by a drone from Syrian territory into Jordan.
By monitoring and constant watching, the aircraft was captured and shot down, and after searching the area, quantities of narcotic substances were found, the source pointed out.
The Jordanian armed forces would “strike with an iron hand, and deal with any infiltration or attempted smuggling with full force, to protect the border and prevent those who dare to mess with Jordanian national security,” the source said.
Saudi newspaper Akaz has recently unveiled a confidential report confirming the involvement of Bashar al- Assad’s regime and family in the manufacture and export of drugs in Syria with the help of Lebanese actors and in cooperation with experts from Turkey and the Balkans.
According to the report prepared by European drug-trafficking agencies, drug trafficking has become a major economic and vital source for the Syrian regime in the face of the difficult economic situation and the economic pressures and sanctions that suffocates the regime.
The report mentioned the tangible increase in the last decade of manufacturing and exporting Captagon pills from Syria and to a lesser extent from Lebanon.
This is in addition to amphetamine, which was controlled by criminal organizations in Turkey and Bulgaria at that time to be smuggled to the countries of the region by land through Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. However, the Bulgarian authorities fought this phenomenon and succeeded in reducing it significantly, especially between 2003 and 2006.
With the proceeds of this trade turning into a tangible source of income in Syria, unlike other countries in the Middle East, the Syrian regime is turning a blind eye to the manufacture of drugs in its territory and is not doing anything to combat it, the report said. Not only that, but after the end of the battles in 2018, parties close to the regime controlled the Captagon market, where this drug currently constitutes most of the exports from the Syrian territories controlled by the regime.
Some 173 million Captagon pills seized worldwide during 2020 were reported to have been produced in Syria and valued at about $3.5 billion, five times the country’s official export volume of $630 million in 2019, according to the report.
The European report accused the Syrian regime of being involved in drug production and smuggling, starting with the import of raw materials, manufacturing of amphetamines and ending with the production and smuggling of pills. The manufacture of Captagon pills takes place mainly in the cities of Homs, Tartous and Latakia under the control of Samer Kamal al-Assad, the cousin of Bashar al-Assad, who controls trade in The port of Latakia with the help of elements linked to Hezbollah, all under the auspices of Maher al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s brother, and Rami Makhlouf, his cousin, who played a major role in smuggling operations until disputes arose between him and the Assad family, the report pointed out.
