Algeria: New security roadmap to fight fuel and drugs smuggling

In line with an injunction from Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, the Commander in chief of the National Gendarmerie Forces, Major General Ahmed Boustila, has ordered the Commander of border guards, Colonel Mohamed Berkani to tighten security controls on the western, eastern and southern borders of Algeria as part of stepped up efforts to stamp out fuel and drugs’ smuggling.

National Gendarmerie sources told Echorouk that Colonel Mohamed Berkani has been entrusted with streamlining all the ongoing efforts to cope with this nefarious scourge through the mobilization of all the security and customs services in addition to the local authorities of the regions concerned by trans-border fuel and drugs trafficking.

To this effect, a security roadmap aimed at eradicating this plague, which has so far dealt a severe blow to the national economy, is being drawn out by the relevant security services.

Among the preliminary measures taken by the authorities, owners of petrol stations notably those located in border areas will be forbidden from selling petrol to those people having vehicles with double tanks or in take-away containers.

Manifold roving inspection brigades will also be deployed on the ground to act in a harmonious and coordinated way with the relevant security services to make Algeria’s borders less porous, according to the same sources.