The Jordanian Armed Forces on Monday said it downed a small drone for the third time this month. The drone appeared in Jordan’s eastern military region, which stretches from Ramtha along the Syrian border to the Iraqi border, it said.
The Jordanian Armed Forces “continue to protect national security and confront any threat to it with full force and firmness,” the army wrote on social media.
الجيش العربي: اسقاط المسيرة الثالثة خلال الشهر الحاليالقوات المسلحة: اسقاط طائرة مسيرة على واجهة المنطقة العسكرية الشرقيةالقوات المسلحة: ماضية في حماية الأمن الوطني ومواجهة أي تهديد له بكل قوة وحزمhttps://t.co/vvpjJsiCnn#الأردن #القوات_المسلحة_الأردنية #الجيش_العربي pic.twitter.com/IBbM4BVTo4
— Jordan Armed Forces (@ArmedForcesJO) August 28, 2023
The drone appears to have been a commercially available quadcopter that could be used by smugglers for surveillance, it said.
Jordan’s ongoing battle against Syrian drug smuggling gangs
Jordan has been confronting increased threats from drug smugglers in Syria, including many gangs that are linked to Iranian-backed proxies. The Jordanians have met with the Syrian regime over the last several months to press Damascus to crack down on the drug trade, which they say destabilizes the border region.
Syria is a center of the Captagon drug trade. Some of these drugs are sent to the Gulf states and elsewhere. The use of drones by smugglers is a new phenomenon as cartels innovate.
A customs officers displays confiscated Captagon pills (credit: REUTERS)The use of drones to smuggle drugs is an emerging threat, and media outlets in the Gulf have reported on it, including Riyadh-based Arabic news channel Al-Arabiya and The National, an English-language daily newspaper published in the UAE. Previously, a drone was found to be carrying explosives, The National reported.
“The Border Guard forces, in coordination with the Anti-Narcotics Department and the military security services, detected an attempt to illegally cross the border from Syrian territory to Jordanian territory by a drone, and it was shot down inside Jordanian territory,” The National quoted the Jordanian army as saying in a statement.
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