Who was Marie al-Ramthan ‘Escobar’ of southern Syria killed in Jordanian airstrike

A rare Jordanian airstrike on Syria earlier this week killed Marie al-Ramthan, a notorious drug smuggler known as the Pablo Escobar of southern Syria.

Al-Ramthan, reportedly born in 1978 in Suwayda’s village of Shaab, which borders Jordanian territories, had close ties to Iran and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

He was reportedly the main smuggler of drugs to Jordan, and he had recruited dozens of young men from Syria’s Daraa and Suwayda to manage his operations.

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Al-Ramthan was arrested by Syria’s military intelligence for five days in December 2022, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor with a wide network of sources on the ground in the war-torn country.

He was reportedly released on December 20 after Hezbollah militias in Suwayda intervened to release him by paying a hefty ransom.

Al-Ramthan had faced several Jordanian judicial cases related to drug trafficking.

In July 2022, a Jordanian court gave al-Ramthan, and others also wanted ten days to hand themselves over to the authorities on drug smuggling charges. According to judicial sources, al-Ramthan had been sentenced to death on several occasions in recent years in absentia by Jordanian courts for drug trafficking.

Another rare airstrike by Jordan on Monday hit an Iran-linked drugs factory in addition to killing al-Ramthan and his family.

The drug factory was believed to have been a meeting point for Hezbollah-paid smugglers.
With agencies

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