The National Gendarmerie tightened control on all types of firearms that are held by the elements of self-defence groups. Some of them told “Echorouk” they received instructions a few weeks ago from the services of the gendarmerie which injoined them to present documents pertaining to legal weapons’ possession.

• These measures included, in a first stage, elements of self-defence groups in the Mitidja region, precisely in Medea, west of Algiers.
• Observers think that these measures came under the control of firearms holders in this region against the backdrop of a new flare-up of terrorist attacks there after a relative security stability.
• Previously, soldiers from the Algerian army were targeted by terrorists along with municipal guards as they were on board  a truck.
• This incident followed the spread of the illegal arms and war ammunition trade and trafficking in Medea, which comes on top of the cities that noticed this criminal activity during the first four months of the current year with 29 cases. Gendarmes arrested 30 arms smugglers in the same period as well.
• A security report on the firearms and ammunition trade show that 391 people were arrested during the first four months of the current year, including four women who were involved in the smuggling of firearms, had been recruited by criminal cells.
• Services of the national gendarmerie dealt with 316 arms trafficking cases during the first four months and recovered 91 arms of different types as well as 2.872 bullets and 8.5 kg of black powder used in manufacturing explosives or cartridges.