AMMAN (Reuters) – A Jordanian army officer was killed and three army personnel injured on Sunday when drug smugglers making an attempt to enter the nation from Syria fired at an army outpost along the border, a Jordanian army statement stated.
The smugglers fled again to Syria, abandoning a big cache of medication, the army statement stated. “The army will reply with all energy and resolve (towards) any infiltration try to guard our borders and stop anybody who dares to violate our nationwide safety.”
Jordanian officers have voiced rising alarm at a spike in tried drug smuggling from Syria over the previous yr, together with massive portions discovered hidden in Syrian vehicles passing by means of its foremost border crossing to the Gulf area.
Last yr the Jordanian army stated it shot down a drone flying a big amount of medication throughout the border.
Jordanian officers say Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group and militias who maintain sway in southern Syria are behind smuggling of one of the vital widespread banned medicine, a stimulant often known as Captagon, which has a thriving market in the Arab Gulf. Hezbollah denies the accusations, calling them fabricated.
U.N. drug specialists say Syria, shattered by a decade-long civil warfare, has grow to be the area’s foremost manufacturing website for medicine destined for Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf and Europe.
Syrian authorities have in current months introduced a number of main interceptions of medication destined for Gulf markets and say they’re doing their utmost to crack down on widespread manufacturing in the nation.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
