Detainees Reveal Details of Drug Smuggling Operations from Syria to Jordan

An army patrol is deployed at the Jordan border to combat drug smuggling from Syria in April 2023. (AFP)
An army patrol is deployed at the Jordan border to combat drug smuggling from Syria in April 2023. (AFP)
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Detainees Reveal Details of Drug Smuggling Operations from Syria to Jordan

An army patrol is deployed at the Jordan border to combat drug smuggling from Syria in April 2023. (AFP)
An army patrol is deployed at the Jordan border to combat drug smuggling from Syria in April 2023. (AFP)

Jordan has intensified its confrontation against drugs smugglers from Syria.

Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the army was adopting a new strategy of luring the smugglers to the Kingdom instead of confronting them behind the border.

Last week, it arrested 15 smugglers and criminals, while five were killed in clashes.

Days later, a “special force” raided a smuggler den, killing seven people.

Unverified reports said Jordanian businessmen with affiliations to politicians were suspected of cooperating with the drug smuggling militias.

The sources revealed that the Jordanian people will likely be informed of the confessions of the detained smugglers.

The confessions will reveal the extent of the illicit operations and the danger they pose to the kingdom, as well as the revenues generated from the drug economy, which now boasts factories and an army of smugglers in Syria.

Amman has remained on the defense in confronting smuggling operations across the 375-kilometer-long border it shares with Syria.

Officials have repeatedly denied that the army had carried out operations inside Syria and they refuse to comment on widely circulated reports that the air force had carried out four raids against drug factories in Syria’s Daraa and al-Sweida.

Jordan is facing drug gangs backed by Iranian militias and regime-allied military units, as well as others loyal to Maher al-Assad, brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In mid-December, the Jordanian military arrested nine smugglers and killed a number of others. The confessions of the detainees revealed the details of the organized smuggling in eastern Jordan.

The revelations allowed the military to carry out sophisticated operations against “dangerous” criminals and seize large amounts of drugs and weapons.

The weapons are sophisticated enough to allow the smugglers to secure their operations in the desert along the northern and eastern borders with Iraq and reaching south to Saudi Arabia in spite of challenging weather conditions, such as fog and sandstorms.

Besides it being a lucrative industry, the smuggling is seen as an attempt by Iran to expand its influence in the region and destabilize Jordan.

A Jordanian source revealed that tons of narcotic pills, hashish and other drugs have been confiscated.

It added that Amman didn’t want to receive complaints from other regional countries that they had busted smuggling attempts.

“The kingdom is working on securing its borders and preventing the drugs from reaching its neighbors. Their national security is integral to Jordan’s,” it stressed.

Jordan is ultimately a small market for these drugs, but the gangs have to pass through the kingdom to smuggle their narcotics to other countries in the region.

Jordan announced last week it was bolstering is border security with plans to set up an electronic fence that would bar all infiltration and smuggling attempts.

The growing focus on combating drugs reflects Amman’s halt in efforts to “revive” the Syrian regime and return it to its Arab fold.

Arab efforts to that end last year led to Bashar al-Assad attending the Arab summit in Jeddah in May. However, that did not stop the drug smuggling operations.

Amman has grown more and more skeptical that Damascus would not fulfill its military and security commitments to protect the border. Jordan appears to be the only side protecting the borders.

“The regime’s negligent approach in dealing with the militias is but another face of the regime that wants to export its crises to neighboring countries,” security officials had told Asharq Al-Awsat in a previous report.



What Makes Greenland a Strategic Prize at a Time of Rising Tensions? And Why Now? 

A person walks on a snow covered road, ahead of the March 11 general election, in Nuuk, Greenland, March 9, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters) 
A person walks on a snow covered road, ahead of the March 11 general election, in Nuuk, Greenland, March 9, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters) 
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What Makes Greenland a Strategic Prize at a Time of Rising Tensions? And Why Now? 

A person walks on a snow covered road, ahead of the March 11 general election, in Nuuk, Greenland, March 9, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters) 
A person walks on a snow covered road, ahead of the March 11 general election, in Nuuk, Greenland, March 9, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters) 

When US President Donald Trump first suggested buying Greenland in 2019, people thought it was just a joke. No one is laughing now.

Trump’s interest in Greenland, restated vigorously soon after he returned to the White House in January, comes as part of an aggressively “America First” foreign policy platform that includes demands for Ukraine to hand over mineral rights in exchange for continued military aid, threats to take control of the Panama Canal, and suggestions that Canada should become the 51st US state.

Why Greenland? Increasing international tensions, global warming and the changing world economy have put Greenland at the heart of the debate over global trade and security, and Trump wants to make sure that the US controls this mineral-rich country that guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America.

Who does Greenland belong to? Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a long-time US ally that has rejected Trump’s overtures. Denmark has also recognized Greenland’s right to independence at a time of its choosing.

Amid concerns about foreign interference and demands that Greenlanders must control their own destiny, the island’s prime minister called an early parliamentary election for Tuesday.

The world’s largest island, 80% of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people who until now have been largely ignored by the rest of the world.

Why are other countries interested in Greenland? Climate change is thinning the Arctic ice, promising to create a northwest passage for international trade and reigniting the competition with Russia, China and other countries over access to the region’s mineral resources.

“Let us be clear: we are soon entering the Arctic Century, and its most defining feature will be Greenland’s meteoric rise, sustained prominence and ubiquitous influence,” said Dwayne Menezes, managing director of the Polar Research and Policy Initiative.

“Greenland — located on the crossroads between North America, Europe and Asia, and with enormous resource potential — will only become more strategically important, with all powers great and small seeking to pay court to it. One is quite keen to go a step further and buy it.”

The following are some of the factors that are driving US interest in Greenland.

Arctic competition

Following the Cold War, the Arctic was largely an area of international cooperation. But climate change, the hunt for scarce resources and increasing international tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are once again driving competition in the region.

Strategic importance

Greenland sits off the northeastern coast of Canada, with more than two-thirds of its territory lying within the Arctic Circle. That has made it crucial to the defense of North America since World War II, when the US occupied Greenland to ensure that it didn’t fall into the hands of Nazi Germany and to protect crucial North Atlantic shipping lanes.

The US has retained bases in Greenland since the war, and the Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Force Base, supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the US and NATO. Greenland also guards part of what is known as the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Gap, where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.

Natural resources

Greenland has large deposits of so-called rare earth minerals that are needed to make everything from computers and smartphones to the batteries, solar and wind technologies that will power the transition away from fossil fuels. The US Geological Survey has also identified potential offshore deposits of oil and natural gas.

Greenlanders are keen to develop the resources, but they have enacted strict rules to protect the environment. There are also questions about the feasibility of extracting Greenland’s mineral wealth because of the region’s harsh climate.

Climate change

Greenland’s retreating ice cap is exposing the country’s mineral wealth and melting sea ice is opening up the once-mythical Northwest Passage through the Arctic.

Greenland sits strategically along two potential routes through the Arctic, which would reduce shipping times between the North Atlantic and Pacific and bypass the bottlenecks of the Suez and Panama canals. While the routes aren’t likely to be commercially viable for many years, they are attracting attention.

Chinese interest

In 2018, China declared itself a “near-Arctic state” in an effort to gain more influence in the region. China has also announced plans to build a “Polar Silk Road” as part of its global Belt and Road Initiative, which has created economic links with countries around the world.

Then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected China’s move, saying: “Do we want the Arctic Ocean to transform into a new South China Sea, fraught with militarization and competing territorial claims?” A Chinese-backed rare earth mining project in Greenland stalled after the local government banned uranium mining in 2021.

Independence

The legislation that extended self-government to Greenland in 2009 also recognized the country’s right to independence under international law. Opinion polls show a majority of Greenlanders favor independence, though they differ on exactly when that should occur. The potential for independence raises questions about outside interference in Greenland that could threaten US interests in the country.