Beirut/Damascus, May 8, (dpa/GNA) – An airstrike thought to have been carried out by Jordanian warplanes, killed a prominent drug dealer and his family near the Syrian-Jordanian border in the early hours of Monday morning, a monitor group reported.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told dpa that the strike killed Marai Al-Ramthan and his family, including his six children, citing a member of the family.
According to Abdel Rahman, the strike targeted a building where Al-Ramthan was present in the village of Al-Shaab in the eastern countryside of Sweida, on the Syrian-Jordanian border.
The monitor added that Al-Ramthan was considered the most prominent drug dealer in the region, and was primarily responsible for smuggling illegal substances to Jordan from the border village of Al-Shaab.
It also said Al-Ramthan was linked to leaders of the pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.
The Syrian observatory denounced the killing of Al-Ramthan’s wife and children, and said that “the presence of a wanted person like Al-Ramthan does not justify the killing of his children and his wife with him.”
An activist group in the area of Sweida called Free Houran Gathering confirmed the airstrike. It added the strike targeted a purification plant where the drugs were being produced.
Drug trafficking, especially amphetamine-type stimulant known as Captagon, has flourished in Syria and Lebanon since the conflict began in Syria in 2011.
The Captagon trade is estimated to run to the billions of dollars. People close to Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and their associates, are said to be involved in the production and smuggling of drugs. The drugs are usually mainly destined for oil-rich Gulf countries.
GNA