Prosecutors filed indictments in the Beersheba District Court on Thursday against three southern residents who allegedly used drones to export large quantities of hashish to Jordan and bring Glock pistols back into Israel in return.
The indictments name Bedouins Ali al-Saraia, 28, from Kuseifa; Wahel al-Tzaraia, 24, from the Abu Juweid tribe; and Zaid Abu Guayad, 23, from the Negev. The case was investigated by the Southern District Central Unit and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).
According to the indictments, the alleged smuggling operation ran from November 2025 through January 2026 near the Dead Sea Works area, close to the Israel-Jordan border. The prosecution says the defendants arrived at hilltops near the border carrying drones and packages of hashish weighing several kilograms each, flew the drones into Jordan, and later received them back loaded with pistols.
In total, the prosecution alleges that the defendants exported about 120 kilograms of hashish to Jordan and imported about 44-48 Glock pistols into Israel, depending on how the final January shipment is counted.
Some of the pistols were later sold, including to a West Bank resident, for tens of thousands of shekels.
The alleged method was simple but alarming: drugs went out, guns came back.
According to one indictment, Saraia and Tzaraia allegedly used off-road vehicles and drones to carry out six hashish-smuggling runs in December 2025, each involving roughly eight to nine kilograms of hashish.
In January 2026, they allegedly carried out three additional runs, after which the drones returned from Jordan carrying Glock pistols – 10 pistols the first time, seven the second time, and six or seven the third time. Prosecutors say the pair later coordinated the sale of five or six of the pistols for NIS 23,000 each, near the Yatta area.
A second indictment says Saraia and Guayad carried out five similar smuggling runs in November and December 2025, using an off-road vehicle and a drone to send about eight kilograms of hashish into Jordan each time. After each run, prosecutors say, the drone returned carrying about four Glock pistols, for a total of about 20 pistols.
The indictments also include earlier alleged arms deals. Prosecutors say Tzaraia traded weapons and ammunition with a West Bank resident named Nasser Nagada between 2021 and 2024, including sales of ammunition and transactions involving M16 rifles.
Saraia is also accused of participating with Tzaraia in several of those deals, including the alleged purchase of four M16 rifles for NIS 50,000 each and the sale of ammunition crates.
The charges include weapons import, weapons transport, weapons possession, weapons trafficking, and export and possession of dangerous drugs; Saraia and Tzaraia are also additonally charged with weapons trafficking tied to the alleged sales of guns and ammunition.
Prosecutors asked the court to keep the three defendants in custody until the end of the proceedings. The detention requests say that the evidentiary basis includes interrogations of the defendants and of Nagada, with each account appearing to support parts of the alleged smuggling network while also containing denials and recantations.
According to the prosecution, Saraia described in detail how Tzaraia allegedly proposed smuggling hashish to Jordan by drone, and how pistols were later brought back from Jordan after the drugs were delivered.
Zaid, according to the detention request, initially said he had participated in smuggling hashish and weapons with Saraia and Tzaraia, described the method, and later claimed he had lied during his interrogations. Wahel, prosecutors say, denied involvement in the weapons smuggling and denied buying or selling weapons to Nagada, but acknowledged previous drug-smuggling runs by drone in the same area.
Part of a wider, dangerous border-smuggling phenomenon
The prosecution framed the case as part of a wider and worsening border-smuggling phenomenon. According to the indictments, beginning in 2024, Israel identified a broad pattern of weapons and contraband smuggling by drone along its borders.
Since 2025, the indictments state that thousands of drone crossings have been detected, including those involving large drones capable of carrying tens of kilograms at a time.
The prosecution said security forces seized about 90 pistols smuggled by drone from the Jordanian border in 2025, along with dozens of drones carrying rifles, machine guns, pistols, and ammunition along the Egyptian border. But despite the volume of drone crossings detected, most of the smuggling attempts were not stopped, the indictments said.
The influx of illegal weapons into Israel, prosecutors argued, poses both a criminal and a national-security danger, lowering the price of weapons and making it easier for criminal and nationalist actors to acquire firearms and carry out attacks.