Jordan's Undeclared War Against Syrian Drug Lords

Deep in Jordan’s capital, Amman, sits a building that looks like a luxurious hotel compared to the other structures around it— something that seems as though it should be housing the world’s elite who visit the city. Despite its glamorous look, checking in here is known to many in the community as a last resort. As this building is not a hotel at all, in fact, it is one of the largest rehab centers in the country, a converted hospital that shows how the threat for most Jordanians has gone from bullets to pills. 

Jordan’s war with drugs entered the category of deadly a few months after its entry into the Syrian civil war. Providing assistance to forces from the United States, soldiers gave their lives to help solve the conflict that, sadly, is still going on today. With soldiers looking to survive just one more day on the battlefield, they used supplements to keep them sharper, and more aware. The favorite of these was “the poor man’s cocaine” or Captagon. A type of amphetamine, Captagon, is a stimulator that increases a person’s alertness, physical performance, confidence, and aggression. The drug is used to treat things such as obesity, narcolepsy, and attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). Although, this is not what they are being used for in the middle east. 

It was first believed that the drugs were mainly coming from the opposing insurgents in Syria, an offspring of Al-Qaeda known as Al-Nusra. Al-Nusra ripped apart these allegations by posting videos of the drug being used by soldiers on the governmental forces of Syria, the side Jordan and the United States were fighting on. Using neutral Syrian drug dealers, the Syrian government's soldiers filled their needs by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a day to get Captagon. A business the Syrian government, themselves, quickly entered once they realized how big a profit they could make from selling the drug. They were not the only ones taking it either, with units merging from different countries. American, Jordanian, Israeli, and Turkish soldiers were all introduced to the drug through their Syrian counterparts, an introduction that soon turned into an addiction.

Over the past several years, drug raids have taken place throughout the middle east and even in Europe, with some Syrian drug dealers getting the product as far as Italy. The biggest bust of Captagon was, in fact, off the coast of Italy, where 85 million pills of the drug were discovered on a cargo ship heading for Libya. Captagon heading to other countries are usually sent out through the main Syrian port of Latakia. Syria and one of their closest allies, Lebanon, are both knee-deep in the drug trade to help ease their funding problems. Although by doing so, along with many other factors, the United States and its allies, including Jordan, have distanced themselves, deciding to back the United Nations task force over the Syrian government. Sadly, through their drug trade, Syria has made up for its loss by aligning itself with other Arab powers, much, much more deadly Arab powers. From Algerian jihadists in the east to the Taliban in the west, Syria has added to its artillery. But at what cost? 

Back in the rehab center in Jordan. Many of these patients received their pills because of their country's geographical location. Jordan is right in between Syria and its main customers in the south and east, mainly Saudi Arabia. In the first four months of 2022, seventeen million pills were captured by the Jordanian government, over one million more than in the whole of 2021. Along with this increase in distribution, another worry for the Jordanian government is the presence of armed groups alongside smugglers coming into the country. Armed groups have slowly built up around the border with Syria over the past few years, with the estimate now believed to be around 160 groups in southwest Syria, around half of those, are based within a fifty-mile radius of the Jordanian border. These groups often join up to form coordinated attacks against the Jordanians, or any force threatening their business. With the killing of several Jordanian soldiers, the government changed its policy to shoot to kill. A policy that led to the deaths of 27 traffickers in late January of this year; however, the government is still asking Israeli, Turkish, and American forces to help them defend their borders in this undeclared war against the traffickers. 

Jordan is looking to protect its people from drug traffickers coming out of a neighboring war-torn nation, one that refuses to stop the business; instead, joining in. A total of 6,196 people have been caught in drug abuse and were forced to go to rehab centers as of January 2022. Along with this, there are still over 12,000 drug-related cases ongoing in Jordan, as the leech known as Captagon continues to sink its teeth into the once relatively peaceful middle eastern country. The Jordanian army has also reported that the attacks to get into the country have not slowed down at all, instead getting more violent and coming in far larger quantities than ever before. Leaving Jordan and its people in a dangerous limbo that could kill you through a bullet or a pill. 

By Luke Birch