Jordan army thwarts Syria weapons smuggling

The Jordanian army on Friday thwarted an attempt to infiltrate and smuggle weapons and ammunition from Syria into the kingdom, according to a statement published on its website.

The Jordanian army indicated that the northern military region, in coordination with the Military Security Directorate, on Friday at dawn, thwarted an infiltration and smuggling attempt at one of its fronts.

“The rules of engagement were applied, which led to the arrest of the intruder that was in possession of a number of weapons and ammunition,” it added.

The infiltrator and the seized items were transferred to the relevant authorities, while the statement confirmed: “The armed forces are continuing to deal firmly with infiltration or smuggling attempt to protect the borders.”

Earlier, Colonel Zaid Al-Dabbas of the General Command of the Jordanian Armed Forces shared that about 160 groups are operating in southern Syria, smuggling drugs into the kingdom.

READ: Jordan will maintain links with Russia and Syria regarding border threats, says king

Al-Dabbas added: “The clashes between the Jordanian army and drug dealers have become tenser, especially with the increased arrests recently.”

He pointed out that drug smugglers: “Have new tactics, similar to those of organised crime, and use drones and expensive private vehicles.”

Local sources believe that Bashar Al-Assad’s militia, Iranian militias and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia are responsible for smuggling drugs into Jordan.

It is worth noting that the Jordanian army intercepted more than 17 million Captagon pills coming from Syria in the first half of 2022, while it intercepted 15.5 million Captagon pills during the whole of 2021 and 1.4 million pills in 2020.