AMMAN: Jordan’s Eastern Military Zone troops shot down a drug-smuggling drone from Syria on Monday, Jordan News Agency reported.
An official military source at the General Command of the Jordanian Armed Forces said: “Border Guard forces, in coordination with the military security services and the Anti-Narcotics Department, tracked a drone trying to illegally cross the border from Syria into Jordan, and it was shot down inside Jordanian territory.”
The drone was found to be carrying 2 kg of crystal meth, which was confiscated and turned over to the authorities.
The source added that the JAF will deal with any threat to Jordan’s borders, as well as any attempt to undermine its security or people, with full force and severity.
It comes a day after army and security chiefs from Jordan and Syria met to discuss ways to curb the growing smuggling problem. Despite pledges by Damascus, Jordan says it has not seen any real attempt to clamp down on the illicit trade.
Jordan has blamed pro-Iranian militias, who it says are protected by units within the Syrian army, for smuggling drugs across its borders toward Gulf markets.
Damascus says it is doing its best to curb smuggling and continues to bust smuggler rings in the south. It denies complicity by Iranian-backed militias linked to its army and security forces.
War-torn Syria has become the region’s main site for a multi-billion-dollar drug trade, with Jordan a main transit route to Gulf states for a Syrian-made amphetamine known as captagon, Western anti-narcotics officials and Washington say.
(With Reuters)
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