Notorious drug dealer and his family die in Syria after airstrike

Eight people have been killed in an airstrike on a known drug dealer in Syria, activists said.

Monday morning’s suspected Jordanian attack on the Syrian-Jordan border struck drug smuggler Marai al-Ramthan and his family, including his wife and six of his children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. Since the outbreak of war in Syria, the drug trade in the country has flourished and is one of the main sources of income for the Syrian regime.

According to the London-based Observatory, al-Ramthan was primarily responsible for smuggling drugs from the Syrian village of al-Shaab to Jordan.. According to the activists, leaders of the Shia Hezbollah from Lebanon are also involved in the smuggling. Their militias are fighting alongside government forces in the Syrian civil war.

An action group from the Al-Suwaida border area confirmed the airstrike. According to her, the attack hit a sewage treatment plant that housed a drug production facility.

International researchers now consider Syria one of the world’s largest manufacturers of the drug Captagon. It is estimated that the trade in amphetamine pills has become a multi-billion dollar illicit trade. People from the inner circle of the Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad and their allies are said to be heavily involved in the production and smuggling of drugs. (saw/sda/dpa)