Algerian security services arrest a child kidnapping ring east of Algeria

Investigation by the unit of the National Gendarmerie of Boumerdes (50-km east of Algiers) has broken up recently a gang specializing in the kidnapping of children operating from the province of Tizi-Ouzou (100-km south of Algiers), a local command of National Gendarmerie told APS on Thursday. 

• The ring has been broken up following the kidnapping of a girl on 16 August near her parents’ home downtown Dellys, in Boumerdes, east of Algiers, the source added.
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• According to information provided by the same source, “the father of the kidnapped girl received a phone call on the next day (17 August) from an anonymous woman demanding a ransom of DZD 2 million to release his daughter.”
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•  The father informed the security services, who managed to “identify the caller thanks to her mobile phone number and locate where the call was made, which turns out to be made in the city of Tizi-Ouzou.”  
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• Algerians are concerned about the number of children abducted and recent abduction cases reported in the media have panicked Algerian families.
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• Official figures for 2000 show on month with 28 kidnappings reported. In 2002, 117 children were kidnapped, 71 of them girls. The number of abductees rose to 168 children in 2004. Now, in 2010 one can imagine a larger number of child kidnappings.
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• Most missing children cases were reported in major cities, with the highest concentration in Algiers, Oran and Annaba.