Jordan army says it killed three drug smugglers at Syria border

War-torn Syria has become the region's main site for a multi-billion-dollar drug trade, with Jordan being a main transit route to the oil-rich Gulf states for a Syrian-made amphetamine known as captagon, Western anti-narcotics officials and Washington say. Jordan has blamed pro-Iranian militias, who it says are protected by units within the Syrian army, for smuggling drugs across its borders towards Gulf markets.

The Jordanian army said on Tuesday it killed three drug dealers during an operation that foiled the smuggling of large quantities of drugs across the border from Syria.

About 233,000 captagon pills - a mix of amphetamines - and quantities of hashish were found during the bust, it said. The army said it had monitored a group of smugglers who had sought to cross the border and applied strict rules of engagement to shoot at first sight.

"We continue to deal with resolve and force any threat to our borders and any attempt to undermine and destabilise the country's security," the army said in a statement. War-torn Syria has become the region's main site for a multi-billion-dollar drug trade, with Jordan being a main transit route to the oil-rich Gulf states for a

Syrian-made amphetamine known as captagon, Western anti-narcotics officials and Washington say.

Jordan has blamed pro-Iranian militias, who it says are protected by units within the Syrian army, for smuggling drugs across its borders towards Gulf markets. Damascus says it is doing its best to curb smuggling and continues to bust smuggler rings in the south. It denies complicity with Iranian-backed militias linked to its army and security forces.

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