Jordanian army says shot down a drone carrying drugs from Syria
The Jordanian army said on Monday it had shot down a drone carrying drugs from Syria into its northern frontier region in the third such incident in recent weeks. The plane, which was carrying two kilos of crystal methamphetamine, was intercepted and downed on Jordan’s side of the border, it said. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app. It comes a day after army and security chiefs from Jordan and Syria met to discuss ways to curb the growing smuggling problem. Despite pledges by Damascus, Jordan says it has not seen any real attempt to clamp down on the illicit trade. Jordan has blamed pro-Iranian militias, who it says are protected by units within the Syrian army, for smuggling drugs across its borders towards Gulf markets. Damascus says it is doing its best to curb smuggling and continues to bust smuggler rings in the south. It denies complicity by Iranian-backed militias linked to its army and security forces. War-torn Syria has become the region’s main site for a multi-billion-dollar drug trade, with Jordan a main transit route to the Gulf states for a Syrian-made amphetamine known as captagon, Western anti-narcotics officials and Washington say. Read more: Jordan and Syria collaborate to tackle drug smuggling Iraq discovers captagon production factory near Saudi Arabia Saudi authorities seize 130,000 Captagon pills hidden in cheese boxes