AMMAN — After years of battling drug-smuggling attempts along its northeastern border with Syria, Jordan is now facing a new front in the fight against drug trafficking, with a recently published report by The Telegraph pointing to drug-smuggling networks operating across its border with Israel. 

 

Citing unnamed Jordanian officials, The Telegraph has reported that Jordanian security forces have stepped up border patrols and upgraded surveillance systems amid an increase in attempts to smuggle illegal drugs from Israel into the Kingdom.

 

The British daily reported that organised gangs were using balloons to smuggle drugs across the border, while quadcopter drones were being used to transport crystal methamphetamine, amphetamines and hashish into Jordan.

 

The report said that the smugglers were taking advantage of rising street prices for drugs in Jordan, citing an Israeli estimate that a kilogramme of hashish sells for £7,500 (around JD6,930) in the Kingdom.

 

Jordanian security forces have increased patrols and upgraded border surveillance towers and drones in response to the smuggling attempts, with tens of thousands of kilogrammes of drugs reportedly smuggled across the border, the newspaper said.

 

Photos provided by the Jordan Armed Forces–Arab Army (JAF) show a drone and guided balloons used to smuggle drugs into Jordan across its western border

 

 

 

(JAF photo)

 

A senior Jordanian security source told The Jordan Times on Wednesday that attempts to smuggle drugs from Israel had become frequent in recent months, even surpassing those originating from Syria.

 

The source, who requested anonymity, said that Israeli officials, who have long accused Jordan of allowing weapons to be smuggled into Israel, were overlooking criminal activities on their own side of the border.

 

“Smuggling of illicit drugs from Israel into Jordan has been frequent and is seemingly carried out by organised groups,” the source said.

 

The Israeli media reported in late September that the Israeli military had thwarted an overnight attempt to smuggle 10 guns from Jordan into Israel using a drone.

 

The Telegraph reported that some Israeli right-wing figures had used weapons-smuggling incidents to argue for a greater Israeli military presence in the West Bank and for the continued presence of Israeli settlements, which they portray as forming a security cordon between Israel and what they characterise as a hostile Arab state.

 

“These announcements by the Israeli side are exaggerated and inaccurate and only cover half the story. There are reciprocal smuggling operations of drugs into Jordan. Jordanian border guards have been actively foiling several attempts to smuggle drugs from Israel in recent months,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed Jordanian military source as saying.

 

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A Jordanian military source said, “Jordan makes periodic and transparent official announcements about all smuggling attempts that border guards thwart, while Israel’s selective policy releases reports on certain incidents and amplifies them to try to suggest there are security issues on the border.

 

“It appears that these frequent announcements are aimed at creating an illusion of constant threat on the border to justify stepping up security and military procedures in the West Bank and in border areas.”

 

Jordan has long suffered from illicit drug smuggling on its northeastern frontier with Syria, which stretches to around 400 kilometres.

 

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With Syria emerging as a narco-state under Assad regime and a significant hub for the production and trafficking of Captagon, Jordan had to deal with hundreds of attempts to smuggle drug into the Kingdom.

 

A review by The Jordan Times of JAF’s statements on thwarted drug-smuggling attempts points to an increase in reported incidents along the Kingdom’s western border [with Israel].

 

According to The Telegraph, Jordanian security forces have intercepted more than 15,000 Captagon pills, nearly 20,000 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine and 6,000 blocks of hashish since the beginning of 2026, in addition to “large quantities” of other drugs.