Saraha news – Israeli gangs are flooding Jordan with illegal drugs smuggled across the border by balloon, The Telegraph can reveal.
Criminals are also moving crystal meth, amphetamines and hashish to Jordan with quadcopter drones, officials say.
The gangs are understood to be taking advantage of increasing street prices in the Arab kingdom. One Israeli estimate is that a kilogram of hashish is worth £7,500 in Jordan, after a sharp rise in prices over the past two years.
Jordanian security forces have been forced to increase their patrols and upgrade border surveillance towers and drones, with tens of thousands of kilograms of drugs smuggled.
Israel’s military and law enforcement frequently announce they have seized weapons being smuggled into the Jewish state from Jordan. Last month, they said a drone carrying nine Kalashnikov rifles had been confiscated.
The importation of guns is used by some on Israel’s Right as an argument for a greater military presence in the West Bank and the existence of Israeli settlements to form a security cordon between what is characterised as a hostile Arab state and Israel.
But The Telegraph has been told that Jordan’s military commanders believe that these “selective” announcements portray the kingdom as a lawless neighbour, while ignoring criminality on the Israeli side.
A military source said: “These announcements by the Israeli side are exaggerated and inaccurate and only cover half the story.
“There are reciprocal smuggling operations of drugs into Jordan. Jordanian border guards have been actively foiling several attempts to smuggle drugs from Israel in recent months.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rejected any suggestion it was not taking drug smuggling seriously, saying it had recently established a new army division to strengthen the border and had started working on a new security barrier.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Jordan has stepped up its efforts to crush the remnants of the former Syrian dictator’s drugs empire, which had provided him with significant revenue.
This includes operations to prevent narcotics such as Captagon, a type of amphetamine pill mass-produced in southern Syria, from crossing the border.
The Jordanian air force has bombed positions in Syria’s Suwayda province this summer to disrupt drug operations.
The campaign has pushed up the price of drugs in Jordan, which is a ally of the US and Britain. Israeli security forces believe the street value of hashish is now 15 times higher in the Arab state than in Israel.
The Telegraph has seen official figures giving a glimpse of the scale of the problem.
Since the start of 2026, Jordanian security forces have intercepted more than 15,000 Captagon pills, nearly 20,000kg of crystal meth and 6,000 blocks of hashish, among “large quantities” of other drugs.
Leaked military pictures show quadcopter drones have been used, as well as small balloons.
The smuggling of guns into Israel from neighbouring states such as Egypt and Jordan is a well-documented phenomenon.
Many are illegally supplied by transnational gangs to organised criminals, and Israeli officials warn they can easily fall into the hands of terrorist groups such as Hamas.
The gangs smuggling drugs out of Israel are often the same as those bringing weapons into the Jewish state, using the same methods.
Jordan has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994, with the two countries co-operating quietly on security issues.
However, Jordan has become more outspoken about Benjamin Netanyahu’s government since the Gaza war.
At the United Nations General Assembly last month, King Abdullah II of Jordan said “this [Israeli] government’s sense of impunity has reached terrifying levels”, criticising what he called Israel’s “expansionist appetite” as a “regional threat”.
Jordan is home to a large proportion of Palestinian Arabs, who crossed into the kingdom during the 1948-49 war. It gave up its claim to the West Bank, which was seized by the IDF during the 1967 Six-Day War, in 1988.
A military source said: “Jordan makes periodic and transparent official announcements about all smuggling attempts that border guards thwart, while Israel’s selective policy releases reports on certain incidents and amplifies them to try to suggest there are security issues on the border.
“It appears that these frequent announcements are aimed at creating an illusion of constant threat on the border to justify stepping up security and military procedures in the West Bank and in border areas.”
The IDF identified a drone carrying weapons crossing from the east into Israel
The IDF identified a drone carrying weapons crossing from the east into Israel Credit: Israel Defense Forces
Israel’s involvement in southern Syria has also, according to some analysts, affected the trade in illegal drugs in the Levant.
After forces loyal to Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former jihadist, swept to power in 2024, Israeli troops occupied a portion of Syrian territory in the south.
It also expanded its financial, political and military backing for the Druze faction in the southern Suwayda province, as part of a strategy to limit the power of the new Syrian regime.
Suwayda has since emerged as Syria’s main drugs-production hub, with the Sharaa government limited in its ability to intervene and crush the trade because of Israel’s presence.
An IDF spokesman said: “The claim that the IDF is not taking the issue of smuggling along the eastern border seriously does not reflect the scope of the ongoing efforts and measures being implemented to address it.
“The IDF is working to strengthen defences along the eastern border. As part of these efforts, the 96th Division, a dedicated division responsible for defending the eastern border, was established over the past year.
“Construction of a security barrier has also begun, alongside the reinforcement of additional defensive measures, with the aim of improving detection, prevention, and interdiction capabilities along the border.”
He added: “Over the past year, security forces have thwarted dozens of weapons-smuggling attempts and seized thousands of kilograms of drugs.”
