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)
TT

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.



Syrian Soldiers Distance Themselves from Assad in Return for Promised Amnesty

Members of Bashar Assad's army, or a pro-government militia, line up to register with Syrian opposition forces as part of an "identification and reconciliation process" in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Members of Bashar Assad's army, or a pro-government militia, line up to register with Syrian opposition forces as part of an "identification and reconciliation process" in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
TT

Syrian Soldiers Distance Themselves from Assad in Return for Promised Amnesty

Members of Bashar Assad's army, or a pro-government militia, line up to register with Syrian opposition forces as part of an "identification and reconciliation process" in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Members of Bashar Assad's army, or a pro-government militia, line up to register with Syrian opposition forces as part of an "identification and reconciliation process" in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Hundreds of former Syrian soldiers on Saturday reported to the country's new rulers for the first time since Bashar Assad was ousted to answer questions about whether they may have been involved in crimes against civilians in exchange for a promised amnesty and return to civilian life.

The former soldiers trooped to what used to be the head office in Damascus of Assad's Baath party that had ruled Syria for six decades. They were met with interrogators, former insurgents who stormed Damascus on Dec. 8, and given a list of questions and a registration number. They were free to leave.

Some members of the defunct military and security services waiting outside the building told The Associated Press that they had joined Assad's forces because it meant a stable monthly income and free medical care.

The fall of Assad took many by surprise as tens of thousands of soldiers and members of security services failed to stop the advancing insurgents. Now in control of the country, and Assad in exile in Russia, the new authorities are investigating atrocities by Assad’s forces, mass graves and an array of prisons run by the military, intelligence and security agencies notorious for systematic torture, mass executions and brutal conditions.

Lt. Col. Walid Abd Rabbo, who works with the new Interior Ministry, said the army has been dissolved and the interim government has not decided yet on whether those “whose hands are not tainted in blood” can apply to join the military again. The new leaders have vowed to punish those responsible for crimes against Syrians under Assad.

Several locations for the interrogation and registration of former soldiers were opened in other parts of Syria in recent days.

“Today I am coming for the reconciliation and don’t know what will happen next,” said Abdul-Rahman Ali, 43, who last served in the northern city of Aleppo until it was captured by insurgents in early December.

“We received orders to leave everything and withdraw,” he said. “I dropped my weapon and put on civilian clothes,” he said, adding that he walked 14 hours until he reached the central town of Salamiyeh, from where he took a bus to Damascus.

Ali, who was making 700,000 pounds ($45) a month in Assad's army, said he would serve his country again.

Inside the building, men stood in short lines in front of four rooms where interrogators asked each a list of questions on a paper.

“I see regret in their eyes,” an interrogator told AP as he questioned a soldier who now works at a shawarma restaurant in the Damascus suburb of Harasta. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to media.

The interrogator asked the soldier where his rifle is and the man responded that he left it at the base where he served. He then asked for and was handed the soldier's military ID.

“He has become a civilian,” the interrogator said, adding that the authorities will carry out their own investigation before questioning the same soldier again within weeks to make sure there are no changes in the answers that he gave on Saturday.

The interrogator said after nearly two hours that he had quizzed 20 soldiers and the numbers are expected to increase in the coming days.