The Jordanian army announced the killing of a smuggler and the injury of others, and the seizure of a drug shipment coming from Syrian territories at the border between the two countries.

In a statement today, Wednesday, June 26, the Jordanian army said that the Eastern Military Region, in coordination with military security agencies and the Anti-Narcotics Department, foiled a smuggling attempt of “large quantities” of narcotics coming from Syria.

The statement added that armed clashes with the smugglers resulted in the killing of one of them, the injury of others, and their retreat inside Syrian territory.

The Jordanian army reported, through an unnamed military source, that the Jordanian Armed Forces are deploying all capabilities and possibilities to strike down anyone who attempts to tamper with Jordanian national security.

The foiling of the smuggling attempt came a week after Jordan announced the downing of a drone carrying narcotics before it entered Jordanian territory coming from Syria.

At the time, the Jordanian Al-Mamlaka channel quoted the general command of the Jordanian army and armed forces, stating that the Northern Military Region foiled the smuggling of a quantity of narcotics loaded on a drone over one of their fronts.

Also, on June 5 of this year, the Jordanian Anti-Narcotics Department foiled the smuggling of 9.5 million Captagon pills and arrested members of “two gangs connected to regional networks of drug smuggling”.

These pills were seized alongside 143 kilograms of hashish, which were hidden in heavy machinery in preparation for smuggling through the al-Omari crossing towards Saudi Arabia.

The drug issue is a major topic in Arab discussions with the Syrian regime to reach a political solution in Syria, which has been reflected on the ground oppositely, with an increase in smuggling attempts over the last year.

On June 15, the Syrian regime accused US forces stationed at the al-Tanf base on the Syrian-Jordanian-Iraqi border of facilitating Captagon smuggling into Jordanian territories.

The official Syrian news agency (SANA) quoted an unnamed security source stating that through monitoring the movements of what it described as “terrorists” in the Badia region, the security forces were able to seize “large quantities” of Captagon during an attempt to smuggle them through al-Tanf to a neighboring country.

The Syrian regime, along with its ally, Hezbollah, is primarily accused of being involved in the drug trade in the region, with key Arab countries, particularly Jordan and Saudi Arabia, demanding control over this trade as part of the political resolution pathways in Syria.

Jordan is still striving to reach a formula that will end the flow of drugs from Syria, but initiatives have not yet borne fruit.