The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said: “The raid targeted a building containing their house in the village of Al-Sha’ab in the eastern countryside of As-Suwayda,” at the border with Jordan.
A prominent drug smuggler was killed along with his wife and their six children as a result of an air strike that targeted their home in southern Syria on Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which indicated that Jordan carried out the operation, while Amman has so far refrained from commenting.
The Observatory, which is based in Britain and has a network of sources throughout Syria, reported, in a statement, that “Marai al-Ramthan and his family, consisting of his wife and six children, were killed as a result of Jordanian warplanes targeting a building containing their house in the village of al-Sha’ab in the eastern countryside of As-Suwayda” at the border with Jordan.
Al-Ramathan is considered, according to the observatory, “one of the most prominent drug dealers, including Captagon, in the region and the one responsible for smuggling it to Jordan.”
There was no Jordanian comment on the raid.
This rare raid of its kind inside Syria comes after a statement issued earlier this month in Amman following a meeting that included the foreign ministers of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which stipulated “strengthening cooperation between Syria and neighboring countries and countries affected by drug trafficking and smuggling across the Syrian border.”
The statement stated that Syria “will cooperate with Jordan and Iraq in forming two separate joint political/security working groups within a month, to identify the sources of drug production and smuggling in Syria, and the parties that organize, manage and carry out smuggling operations across the borders with Jordan and Iraq, and take the necessary steps to end smuggling operations.” .
The Jordanian army has been active for years in the field of thwarting the smuggling of weapons and drugs coming from the Syrian territories, especially after it turned into a platform for smuggling drugs, especially Captagon, which is manufactured in Syria, especially to the Gulf countries.
It is not the first time that the Jordanian army has carried out raids inside Syrian territory to thwart smuggling operations, some of which date back to 2014.
Jordan says that drug smuggling across the Jordanian-Syrian border, which extends at a distance of about 375 km, is an “organized operation” that uses drones and is protected by armed groups.
On February 17, 2022, the army announced that the Jordanian authorities had thwarted, within about 45 days, at the beginning of the same year, the entry of more than 16 million Captagon pills, equivalent to the quantity seized throughout 2021.
Syria has been the most prominent source of Captagon since before the war broke out in 2011. However, the conflict made its manufacture more popular, used and exported.
The Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, are the main destination for Captagon pills, which are easy-to-manufacture drugs and classified by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as “a type of stimulating amphetamine,” which is usually a mixture of amphetamines, caffeine, and other substances.
The Jordanian bombing on Monday comes on the heels of an accelerating Arab openness towards Damascus after 12 years of devastating conflict, and the day after the League of Arab States announced, following an extraordinary meeting at the level of foreign ministers in Cairo, the resumption of Syria’s participation in its meetings, after its membership had been frozen since 2011.
