Jordan has foiled two attempts to smuggle a large quantity of narcotics using electronically directed balloons along its eastern front, state media reported.
Border Guard forces responded to the incident in collaboration with the Anti-Narcotics Department and seized an unspecified quantity of drugs, Petra News Agency said.
Photos provided by the agency showed several bags of narcotics lined up alongside an image of the balloons to which they were attached.
Jordanian authorities have been cracking down on the smuggling of narcotics into the kingdom. Last month, Jordan's state security court sentenced a drug dealer to death. He had been convicted of killing three Jordanian security personnel when they arrived to arrest him in the east of Amman.
Since 2018, Jordan has been a main conduit for drugs manufactured in Lebanon and Syria, and heading for Saudi Arabia, which is also a consumer market.
Amphetamine pills, known as Captagon, are particularly common. Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Israel are also sources of drugs for the kingdom.
Jordanian officials say the flow of drugs has fallen since the overthrow of former Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad in December 2024. However, a new breed of drug smugglers has emerged after the fall of the Assad regime, reactivating the cross-border trade in Captagon using advanced balloon technology.
In May, the country's air force raided factories, workshops and warehouses from which drugs were being sent into Jordan, the kingdom's military said.
