Jordan military said on Monday it had shot down a drone transporting drugs from Syria to its northern border region in the third such incident in recent weeks. The plane, which was carrying two kilos of crystal methamphetamine, was intercepted and shot down on the Jordanian side of the border.
It comes a day after military and security chiefs from Jordan and Syria met to discuss ways to curb the growing smuggling problem. Despite Damascus’ promises, Jordan says it has seen no real attempt to crack down on the illicit trade.
Jordan has accused pro-Iranian militias, which it says are protected by troops within the Syrian army, of smuggling drugs across its border to markets in the Persian Gulf.
Damascus says it is doing everything it can to curb smuggling and continues to crack down on smuggling rings in the south. It denies the complicity of Iranian-backed militias linked to its military and security forces.
War-torn Syria has become the region’s main hub for the multibillion-dollar drug trade, with Jordan a major transit route to the oil-rich Gulf states for the Syrian amphetamine known as captagon, Western anti-narcotics officials and Washington say.