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.
