“The Border Guard forces … detected a drone attempting to illegally cross the border from Syrian territory into Jordanian territory, and it was shot down,” state news agency Petra cited a Jordanian military official as saying.
The source added that the drone was “carrying explosives of the type TNT” and was dismantled by a squad of Jordanian experts.
Jordan has become a transit point of drugs, particularly captagon, being smuggled out of Syria which has turned into a Middle Eastern hub for narcotics. The Jordanian military has previously downed drones carrying narcotics, as well as weapons.
On Sunday, the Jordanian military shot down a drone laden with crystal meth that was flying into the country from neighboring Syria.
In early May, an airstrike killed a prominent drug dealer and his family in southern Syria, with a war monitor stating that the strike had been carried out by Jordan. Amman has not confirmed whether it was behind the strike.
Numerous meetings have taken place between Jordanian and Syrian officials in an attempt to curb the illicit drug trade, but Amman remains dissatisfied with the outcome of these talks. The highest-level meeting took place in July between Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The meeting followed Assad’s return to the Arab League in May following over a decade of isolation. Jordan, as well as other members of the league, have used the Syrian president’s return to the Arab fold as an opportunity to increase security cooperation with Syria to deal with the cross-border drug smuggling issue.
