SWUAYDA, Syria (North Press) – The drug smuggling file witnessed a quantum leap after targeting the village of al-Shaab in the southeast of Suwayda Governorate in southern Syria which killed a drug dealer and his six-member family.
Suwayda’s residents had different viewpoints, some agreed on the necessity of the operation and considered it a very important step to fight the spread of drug trafficking, especially after the spread of captagon pills among the youth and adolescents of Suwayda. Others denounced the operation and considered it a crime that claimed the lives of innocent children.
In an interview with North Press, the political activist, Sami Zeinaddin, expressed his sorrow over the killing of innocent children, and how his ancestors’ homeland has become enslaved by all countries, “as the Syrian regime is held responsible for what happened.”
On May 8, the prominent drug dealer Marei Ramthan along with his family members were killed in an air strike that targeted his house in the village of al-Shaab, who was considered one of the most prominent suspects in drug smuggling from Syria, thus his death constituted a new stage in the file.
Zeinaddin further explained that there are hundreds of people like Marei al-Ramthan in southern Syria, al-Ramthan is only one person in the drug smuggling and trafficking network, his affiliation with Military Security of the Syrian government forces and Hezbollah, the main supporter of captagon, facilitated his work in drug trafficking.
According to Zainaddin, the drug trafficking and smuggling are protected by the Fourth Division, a military formation of the Syrian army. The operation to kill al-Ramthan “came to whitewash the regime’s page and is a prelude to dealing with a step-for-step agreement between the neighboring countries and the Syrian regime.”
Targeting the key players
Samer al-Halabi, 36, a pseudonym for a resident from Suwayda, said that the killing of “Ramthan is a message to the small trafficker, or what are known as the border traffickers, that they are on the short list in the event that a step-for-step agreement is implemented between the Syria and Jordan.
Al-Halabi believes that Ramthan is only a link in a long chain of the captagon trafficking in Syria. The fight against drug trafficking and smuggling must start from the top, the key players, not the other way around.
Meanwhile, Firas al-Khatib, 30, a pseudonym for a resident from the eastern countryside of Suwayda, mocked the way al-Ramthan was killed, and from his point of view, “it was possible to get rid of him without killing his children.”
According to al-Khatib, Marei al-Ramthan moves frequently between his village al-Shaab and Damascus, and tours the desert with members of the Haggana Division of the Syrian army.
He could have been arrested by the regime and held accountable, and thus the regime would have achieved two steps in a step-for-step agreement, al-Khatib noted sarcastically.
Drug trade is overwhelming southern Syria, as the price of a kilogram of hashish varies between 50,000-75,000 Syrian Pounds (SYP, equals $7-10), and a captagon pill costs only 500 SYP ($0.068).
The Gulf countries, topped by Saudi Arabia, are the main destination for these narcotics materials, according to data issued by the Jordanian authorities.
Several international reports, headed by the US Department of the Treasury, accused the Syrian government and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia of running large drug trafficking networks in this border area, as well as other Syrian regions.