The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that eight people were killed in an air strike on a known drug dealer in Syria. The attack, believed to be Jordanian, targeted drug smuggler Mar’I Al-Ramthan and his family. His wife and six children of the family were also reported killed in the attack carried out on Monday morning in the eastern countryside of Al-Suwaidaa on the Syrian-Jordanian border.

According to the UK-based Observatory, Al-Ramthan was the most prominent drug dealer in the area and the first responsible for smuggling drugs to Jordan from the border village of Al-Sha’ab. He was mainly related with leaders of Lebanese Hezbollah. Leaders of the Shiite Hezbollah from Lebanon are also said to be involved in the drug trade. Their militia is fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad's regime troops in the Syrian war.

Since the outbreak of the war in Syria, drug trafficking has flourished in the country and is one of the main sources of income for the Syrian regime. Captagon, the most commonly used amphetamine in the Middle East, plays an important role in the war. The export of the pills has already provided income for ISIS and other jihadist groups involved in the Syrian war. The British government estimates that the illegal stimulant Captagon brings in around 57 billion dollars a year for the government in Damascus.

The Observatory condemned the airstrike as a war crime, saying that the presence of a wanted person like Al-Ramthan was not a free pass for the killing of his wife and their children.