Algeria sets up urgent plan to secure borders with Libya

The National Gendarmerie forces put an urgent security plan on the eastern borders of the country to tight the noose on smuggling barons, judicial police president said.

• “Border guards and intervention units were mobilised for this plan. The National Gendarmerie reported 867 smuggling cases in the last two months,” Lieutenant Colonel Ben Aziz Rachid Eddine told Echorouk.
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• “A total of 398 suspects were arrested and 40 vehicles were seized. A considerable number of weapons and ammunition and 5 quintals of fertilisers were seized,” he added.
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• In the same period, the National Gendarmerie forces seized 8 quintals of drug, weapons, 4 Kalashnikovs, mobile phones and a considerable number of Toyota cars. Six people were arrested. Four of them were Algerians and two Malians.
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• According to security sources, smugglers are working in the borders with Tunisia. They exploit the situation in neighbouring countries to pass their commodities including sheep and cows.
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• The Popular National Army’s forces multiplied its units in the Algerian Libyan borders in coordination with border guards and customs. This is meant to prevent any flow of arms to terrorist groups. Security surveillance operations were launched on borders with Libya to catch terrorists following the security situation in the country.