The Jordanian army announced that its forces thwarted an attempt to infiltrate and smuggle quantities of narcotics from Syrian territory.

The Jordanian army, via its official site quoting an unnamed military source, mentioned that the Jordanian forces in the eastern military region, in coordination with military security agencies and the Anti-Narcotics Department, foiled early today, Wednesday, October 2, within its area of responsibility, an attempt to infiltrate and smuggle quantities of narcotics from Syrian territory.

The source stated that after intensifying search and inspection operations in the area, quantities of narcotics were found and the seized items were turned over to the competent authorities without specifying their quantity and details.

The same source indicated that the Jordanian Armed Forces continue to utilize their various capabilities and resources to prevent all forms of infiltration and smuggling with force to maintain the security and stability of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

This smuggling attempt is part of a long series of efforts that Jordan has sought to curb for years through various means, including political and security measures, but has not been entirely successful to date.

In September last year, Jordan foiled five attempts to smuggle drugs from Syria. The latest was on the 12th of the same month when the border guard forces of the eastern military region thwarted an attempt to infiltrate and smuggle quantities of narcotics from Syrian territory.

In early September, the Jordanian Public Security Directorate announced the thwarting of four attempts to smuggle drugs into the kingdom or out of it, noting that six smugglers were arrested and more than 420,000 narcotic pills were seized.

The drug smuggling file is one of the issues included in the Jordanian Initiative for a solution in Syria, driven by Arab countries to reach solutions on a set of files for which the Amman Consultative Meeting and the Arab Liaison Committee Meeting in Cairo have not made tangible progress.

Some of the files that the Arabs are trying to reach an understanding on are still stagnant, such as the issues of refugees, detainees, and the Iranian presence in Syria. Others have taken a reverse path by exacerbating the problem instead of resolving it.

The Syrian regime is considered the primary party responsible for the smuggling and trade of drugs to neighboring countries, most notably Jordan, which is a conduit for these narcotics toward the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia.

In March 2023, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions targeting figures in the Syrian regime involved in manufacturing and smuggling Captagon and trading it.

In April 2021, a study by the Center for Operational Analysis and Research (COAR) stated that Syria has become a global center for the production of the narcotic “Captagon” and that it has become more technically advanced and developed in this industry than ever before.