The Media Line: After a Lull, Jordan Again Confronts Syrian Drug Trafficking 

After a Lull, Jordan Again Confronts Syrian Drug Trafficking 

Syrian drug trafficking slowed down during the war between Israel and Hezbollah, but a recent clash on the Syria-Jordan border suggests that the trade is back 

Rizik Alabi / The Media Line 

[Damascus] Over the past two days, the Syria-Jordan border has witnessed what military officials described as intense clashes between Jordanian forces and groups of smugglers. 

Jordan announced that its border guards clashed with groups trying to cross into Jordan through the northern border, an area under the control of the Jordanian military’s Eastern Command. One individual was killed, and the rest fled back to Syrian territory. 

Jordanian media reported that border guards confronted the group and seized their drugs. The guards also seized weapons, including two Kalashnikov rifles and a pistol. All seized materials were brought to the relevant authorities.  

Jordanian journalist Khader Malkawi told The Media Line that a Jordanian military officer was injured in the incident and airlifted to receive medical attention.  

The incident was one sign of renewed drug trade in the Middle East after a period of reduced activities. According to residents in Syria’s Daraa Governorate, located on the border with Jordan, bad weather and the spread of fog along the border encouraged smugglers to resume their activities after weeks of inactivity. This hiatus followed a period of stagnation in drug trafficking as Hezbollah, a major player in the drug trafficking game, had been preoccupied with its war with Israel. 

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah and amid the developments in Syria, drug trafficking from Syria through Jordan and the Gulf countries has weakened. 

For years, Hezbollah and the deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime have been the primary sources of drug manufacturing and trafficking in the Middle East and globally. The war in Lebanon weakened the drug trade, though, and the diminished drug trade in turn contributed to the collapse of Hezbollah and the Assad regime, both of which relied heavily on the revenues from the illicit trade. 

The main drug trafficked by the Assad regime was the stimulant fenethylline, known as Captagon. Syria was the largest producer of Captagon in the world, with its drug trade valued at nearly three times the combined drug revenues of Mexican drug cartels. The UK estimated that Assad earned approximately $60 billion annually from drug revenues. 

The ousted Assad regime has continued to deny that drug manufacturing and trafficking occurred under state protection. But Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group of Syrian rebels that deposed Assad, has discovered warehouses stocked with large quantities of drugs and drug manufacturing facilities in former security and military compounds of the previous regime.  

Security sources told The Media Line that the Syrian military’s 4th Armored Division had warehouses containing tons of drugs. Security forces in the new administration also seized millions of Captagon pills in the Kafr Sousa security zone in central Damascus, one of the largest security headquarters of the Assad regime. 

Days after Assad’s fall and Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s assumption of power, Jordan’s foreign minister visited Syria. The two countries made agreements to fight drug and arms smuggling from Syria into Jordan and emphasized that combating terrorism is a shared goal between the two countries. 

Analysts believe that the fall of the Assad regime will not necessarily facilitate the eradication of the drug trade. They note that the issue of tracking smugglers has become even more serious following the smugglers’ year of collaboration with Assad.  

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