The Jordanian border is witnessing a noticeable escalation in operations to thwart drug smuggling from Israel, coinciding with the military tensions taking place in the region, starting with the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. Gaza And up to escalations in Lebanon.
Although the drug smuggling issue is not new, the political situation in the region has increased the pace of work of smuggling groups, especially in the first half of this October, according to security and military experts.
As a result, he became… Jordan He faces a new scenario in which he has become Israel A source of drug exports, as officials reveal exclusively to Al Jazeera Net in this report, which details the smuggling operations.
The border with Israel is more active
Since last August 19, Jordan announced the thwarting of 32 attempts to smuggle narcotic drugs until October 17, most of them in the southern military zone adjacent to the Israeli side, according to what Al Jazeera Net monitored on the Jordanian army website.
This is matched by an official Jordanian assertion that the country continues to harness its potential and capabilities to confront such attempts, which it says “target national security,” while it does not specify or indicate the involvement of any parties in these operations, contenting itself with identifying the military front.
According to information revealed by the former director of the Jordanian Drug Control Department, Tayel Majali, to Al Jazeera Net, Israel’s involvement in smuggling narcotic substances into Jordan is confirmed, as several cases have been recorded over the past few months confirming that the source of the sent substances is Israel, and there is a significant increase in smuggling operations of this type. , as he put it.
Retired Brigadier General Dhaif Allah Al-Daboubi agrees with what Al-Majali said, and added that Jordan is witnessing what he called a “reverse migration of narcotic pills,” as smuggling operations begin from the Sinai of Egypt, passing through Israel and arriving in Jordan.
Regarding its source, Al-Daboubi explains, “There are groups residing in the Beersheba and Negev regions that have great financial capabilities and are capable of smuggling drugs using modern tools such as drones, and it is expected that they will develop in the coming days to smuggle weapons.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli media says – citing sources in the “Ozbat Adom” unit, which is responsible for the Israeli-Egyptian border up to Eilat – that drug smuggling gangs in Sinai, Egypt, “recently began smuggling various types of drugs into Israel using drones,” indicating that they It is on the rise, and after being isolated cases, it has now become a much broader phenomenon.
The two experts agree that Israel is colluding with these groups, and stress that if it is not at the official level, then it is at the level of the Israeli army units that contribute and facilitate the arrival of these drugs to the border with Jordan.
These supported groups do not appear to target Jordan, which has been flooded by its neighbor Syria With drugs, but it targets the Gulf countries, according to his statement.
According to Al-Daboubi, the Israeli army’s preoccupation with the war in Lebanon, Gaza, and the Golan, and the Egyptian army’s preoccupation with the Philadelphia axis linking Egypt and Gaza, contributed to revitalizing the work of these groups, as wars are a fertile environment for their work.
With these indicators that confirm the complexity of the issue, Jordan finds itself forced to focus its resources in one direction, namely the security of its western borders.
Even before that, the increasing arms smuggling into the West Bank was worrying Jordan, although… Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty of 1994 obligates both countries to prevent cross-border smuggling as part of their broad security commitments.
Public Security thwarts the smuggling of 9.5 million narcotic pills and overthrows two gangs linked to regional networks
For details || https://t.co/0n8HLV4yvL#Public_Security #Jordan pic.twitter.com/16UeVKSLpS
– Public Security Directorate (@Police_Jo) June 5, 2024
How is smuggling done?
Smugglers are creative in choosing the method of smuggling. From stuffing fruits, foodstuffs, vegetables, car fuel, and animals into heavy vehicles, they have reached the point of employing women and children to bring drugs into Jordan, according to judicial rulings seen by Al Jazeera Net.
However, these groups have become more sophisticated, as they employ technology in their work, such as sending missiles and missiles loaded with narcotic substances, and recently there has been greater reliance on drones that are specially modified for smuggling.
It has become completely dependent on it. Since the beginning of this October, all operations to thwart smuggling – announced by the Jordanian army – have been using drones, which Jordan has come to consider as a basic requirement at the current stage, in light of the technological and technological development that has cast a shadow over modern wars.
Successive army statements, day after day, indicate that when this type of drone is spotted, the rules of engagement are applied and it is shot down inside Jordanian territory. It turns out that it is loaded with narcotic substances, and the seized items are transferred to the competent authorities.
It seems that there is a trend and interest in the type of narcotic substances at the expense of quantity, given that the drones used in smuggling operations are small and cheap, some of which do not exceed $5,000 in price, and such drones usually do not carry large payloads, according to strategic expert Dr. Omar Al Raddad.
In addition, experts attribute the heavy reliance on this type of technology to the fact that it is easier to use, faster to reach, capable of carrying all types of drugs if modified in a professional manner, and the possibility of it being seized is less, as it requires international efforts and border agreements to control and limit it.
As for its source, Brigadier General Saleh Al-Abadi says that smuggling groups either buy aircraft, smuggle them, or pick them up from war remnants, and obtaining them is no longer difficult.
It is difficult to know or determine the location of the aircraft’s transmission if the distances are long and the march crosses the geographical boundaries of land, sea and air. The location of the reception can be detected by visual observations, whether normal vision, which is limited, or electronic day and night vision devices, and this depends on the accuracy of the vision devices, according to his talk to Al Jazeera. net.
On the other hand, Jordan is also working to strengthen its security system. In October 2022, it launched the first test site in the region for unmanned aerial systems, anti-unmanned aerial systems technology, and electronic warfare.
The experiment included a set of tests that included delivery by drones and reconnaissance flights, and this is considered a fundamental advance to confront this type of threat, especially on the borders.
However, Jordan has not achieved its full potential, primarily due to insufficient funding and development support.
Although confronting and shooting down aircraft is possible, knowing the personalities and identities of the smugglers is impossible. If the drone is shot down and the other side (the sender) is not detected, it is possible to examine and then extract the digital plate and cameras, thus only its source will be revealed.
There are other factors that limit its capture electronically, such as being at a height close to the surface of the Earth, and the weather also plays a role in determining it, as in cloudy weather it is difficult to capture it, as he put it.
Syrian drugs
Syria maintains its position as a primary source of drug smuggling to Jordan, as Jordanian courts witness hundreds of cases in which Syrian and Jordanian dealers were convicted, according to the legal search engine “Qustas,” and 25,000 people were brought before the judiciary during the year 2023 in drug cases in which the conviction rate was 91. %.
Last September, Jordanian customs foiled an attempt to smuggle 3 kilograms of crystal hidden inside a truck hood and more than a million Captagon pills coming from Syria, 852,000 of which were hidden inside mechanical parts of a vehicle, while 200,000 were seized in another truck in a cool box. .
While smuggling operations go through periods of ebb and flow and increase logarithmically, they are controlled by several factors, such as the season or weather, as they increase in the winter and decline in the summer due to the absence of fog and dust, according to the researcher in the drug file, Salah Al-Malkawi.
In addition to these factors, it seems clear from the judicial rulings in “Qustas” and the names mentioned that the tribal character of the border areas between Jordan and Syria was a contributing factor, as the sender from the second country is often awaited by a member of his tribe in the first, given that smuggling depends on mutual trust between the two parties. .
Malkawi said – in his interview with Al Jazeera Net – that drug smuggling from Syria to Jordan has become a clear-cut scenario, and it is not possible to talk about the southern military region in isolation from the northeastern military region (border with Syria), as materials that enter from the north are smuggled from the south.
But he believes that the political situation in the region has changed the rules of the game a little, and Israel has also begun to flee through Jordan to the Gulf states, so Amman continues to follow a dangerous path in light of geopolitical turmoil.
What is striking is that the smuggling groups from Israel and Egypt are copying the style and method of the drug smuggling groups in Syria, and in all cases Jordan constitutes the corridor from there to the whole world, but the question remains: If the intentions of the Syrian smuggling groups – according to experts – carry a huge political project, then what? You want Israel?