Pursuing Hezbollah drug dealers | SDF arrest three people in security operation in Deir Ezzor
Deir Ezzor province: Special units of SDF launched security campaign against drug dealers and those accused of “murder and theft” in SDF-held areas, and stormed several houses in Jazarat Al-Milaj town in western Deir Ezzor countryside and arrested three people, where they were taken to an unknown destination without knowing their fates, amid military mobilization in the region.
This comes in light of repeated campaigns by SDF against drug dealers from areas of Iranian militias and Lebanese Hezbollah in areas western of Euphrates in Deir Ezzor countryside.
Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian militias work on filling SDF-held areas with drugs, in addition to all areas in Syria.
On October 6, SOHR activists reported that illicit drugs are smuggled from areas dominated by Iranian-backed militias in Deir Ezzor to SDF-controlled areas in the same province across Euphrates river via crossings linking the river’s eastern and western banks. Iranian-backed militias sell narcotics to local dealers in SDF-held areas. Those dealers sell a share of the smuggled drugs in SDF-controlled areas, while another share is smuggled, with the help of the same dealers, to areas controlled by Turkish-backed factions.
The most prominent river crossings used for smuggling narcotics to SDF-held areas are as follows:
• Al-Abbas crossing: It separates Al-Abbas village from the SDF-controlled area of Hajin in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. It is controlled by the 4th Division under the supervision of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
• Theban crossing: It separates the SDF-controlled area of Theban from Al-Mayadeen in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. It is controlled by Jaysh Al-Ashayer militia under the supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
• Al-Quriyyah crossing: It separates Al-Quriyyah from the SDF-controlled area of Shenan in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. It is controlled by the 4th
• Al-Asharah crossing: It separates Al-Asharah town from the SDF-controlled village of Darnaj in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. It is controlled by Jaysh Al-Ashayer militia.
• Al-Baghouz crossing: It separates the SDF-controlled area of Baghouz from Al-Bokamal city in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. It is controlled by the National Defence Forces (NDF).
• Al-Beghayliyah crossing: It separates Al-Beghayliyah area from the SDF-controlled area of Al-Jininah in the western countryside of Deir Ezzor. It is controlled by the 4th Division and Jaysh Al-Ashayer militia.
Iranian-backed local militias were responsible for smuggling operations to SDF-controlled areas, under supervision and at orders by Syrian and foreign individuals operating for the Iranians in west Euphrates.
Revenue of smuggling operations was shared by Iranian-backed militias, which got 50 to 60 percent of the total revenue, influential figures, who got 30 percent, and smuggler, who got ten percent.
Observatory sources reported that smuggling operations to SDF-controlled areas, mostly conducted late at night, were funded in various ways. Meanwhile, the most common way used for evading detection of narcotics is putting narcotics in boxes used for transporting chickens, where these boxes are delivered to local drug dealers in SDF-controlled areas, who were “collaborators” with and relatives of Iranian-backed militiamen.