Text
messages advising against engaging in the illegal trade have started to arrive
for drug traffickers working along Jordan's southern border with Syria.
Nine
days had passed after a smuggler had been murdered in a strange airstrike in
southern Syria when the alerts were sent.
“We
recognize you. Your every step is being observed.” According to a claimed
transcript of the texts made available by the Suwayda24 network of citizen
journalists in southern Syria, "Your meetings are being watched."
Jordan
is looking to work with Damascus to stop the flow of narcotics because it
serves as a major conduit for what Arab authorities characterize as a
multibillion-dollar trade in the amphetamine known as Captagon.
The
360-kilometer border between Jordan and Syria is regularly used to smuggle
captagon tablets, and the trade has been expanding since 2018.
The
majority of the southern region of Syria was retaken by the Syrian military
from rebels backed by Arab and western nations in the same year.
A
major driving force for Jordan's efforts to normalize relations with President
Bashar Al Assad and efforts by Amman, Saudi Arabia, and other nations to
reinstate Damascus' membership in the Arab League has been the reduction of
Captagon trafficking.
After
Syrian government tanks invaded cities all around the nation to quell
large-scale protests against Mr. Assad, who has ruled since 2000, its
membership was suspended in November 2011.
Saudi
Arabia, which in March agreed to a detente overseen by China with Iran, Mr.
Assad's primary regional supporter, gave Jordanian efforts a boost.
Jordanian
authorities have charged Iran-backed militias with funding the trafficking,
much of which passes through Jordanian territory on its way to Saudi Arabia.
The
notes request that the traffickers surrender to Jordanian border patrol agents.
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