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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Alleged Jordanian airstrikes kill Syrian drug kingpin, his wife and six children

2023-05-09

[IsraelTimes] War monitor says Amman likely behind bombings that targeted home of Merhi Ramthan near its border and drug factory in southern province of Daraa.

Airstrikes over southern Syria early Monday killed one of the country’s most well-known drug pushers, an opposition war monitor and a pro-government radio station reported.

The strikes come a day after Arab governments reinstated Syria to the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
following the country’s suspension for its crackdown on protests. As Arab governments gradually rekindle ties with Damascus, one of the key topics of discussion has been Syria’s illicit drug industry, which has flourished during the ongoing conflict — especially illegal amphetamine captagon.

Western governments estimate that captagon has generated billions of dollars in revenue for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
, his Syrian associates, and allies. Damascus has denied the accusations.

The first strike hit a home in the Syrian village of Shuab in Sweida province near the Jordanian border, killing Merhi Ramthan, his wife and six children, according to the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The opposition war monitor and Sham FM reported another strike in the southern province of Daraa that hit a building. The Observatory said the building housed a drug factory.

The pro-government radio station did not give any further details. There was no immediate comment from either Jordanian or Syrian authorities.

Activists and the war monitor said they believe Jordan is likely behind the ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
, with the captagon producer among the most-wanted by the Jordanian authorities for facilitating drug smuggling across the border with the backing of a small militia. They also say he is close with militias linked to Assad and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Jordan has frequently reported busting drug smuggling operations on its border with Syria, with its soldiers sometimes engaging in shootouts with narco mobs trying to break through from southern Syria. In recent years, Jordanian authorities have discovered millions of smuggled captagon pills, many of which were sent to oil-rich gulf nations.

Both Syria and neighboring Leb
Leb

...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
have become gateways for the drug to the Middle East, and particularly to the the Gulf.

In March, the US and UK slapped sanctions on four Syrians and two Lebanese involved in manufacturing and trafficking captagon.

The six include cousins of the Syrian president and well-known Lebanese drug kingpins. Weeks later, the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
imposed sanctions on several Syrians, including members of Assad’s family, blaming them for the production and trafficking of narcotics, notably captagon.

Rudaw gives an alternate spelling of the gentleman’s name, adding:

UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that a drug dealer identified as Marai al-Rathman was “killed in a Jordanian air force strike” together with his wife and six children in Suwayda province near the Syrian-Jordanian border.

The monitor added that Rathman is “the most prominent drug dealer who is responsible for smuggling it [narcotics] to Jordan from the area,” adding that he was affiliated to Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Jordan has not yet commented on the reports of the airstrike being attributed to it. Jordanian airstrikes targeting drug smugglers in Syria have taken place before, dating back to 2014, according to AFP.

On Thursday, Jordan’s foreign minister told CNN that the country is determined to battle the threat of narcotics taking place along its border with Syria.

Posted by:trailing wife

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