Jordan downs drone carrying illegal drugs from Syria
Jordan’s military has foiled an attempt to smuggle drugs from Syria by drone, the armed forces have said.
Photos distributed by the army showed parcels of drugs strapped to small black drone, which the military said it downed after it crossed from Syria on Saturday.
The parcels contained pills packaged as Galica 300, a commercial name for the drug pregabalin, the photos showed. Pregabalin is used to treat various conditions such as nerve pain, anxiety and epilepsy.
“The drone was controlled and downed, and a volume of drug substances were found,” an army statement read.
Domestic drug consumption in Jordan has risen sharply in the past three years, during which time the kingdom has become a regional transit centre for addictive pills, mainly the amphetamine, Captagon.
Security officials in Jordan and the Gulf say illegal pills worth billions of dollars on the street are manufactured in areas held by the Syrian regime and smuggled by cartels linked to militias in Iran and Jordan.
Most are then smuggled through Jordan to inner Arabia, and some to Israel, they say.
The Jordanian military regularly announces drug seizures on the border with Syria in operations that can involve gun battles with smugglers.
The continuing drug trade has strained relations between Amman and Riyadh.
It was thought to be a driving force behind a policy by Jordan to accommodate the regime of President Bashar Al Assad since 2019.
Russia encouraged the rapprochement but diplomats in Amman say this has cooled since Moscow’s war on Ukraine because of misgivings from the US, Jordan’s main financial and military supporter.