Customs Foil Smuggling of 21 Containers of Copper Waste Towards France, Spain

General Directorate of Customs opened investigations in an attempt of four importers from Algiers and Oran, to smuggle more than 21 containers of the size 40 feet of copper waste, that are ready for export to France and Spain, through false documents.

Details of the case, as revealed by Echorouk sources, are dating back to the receipt of certain information about the suspicious activity for 4 large importers senior of bringing in spare parts from abroad, through false documents, across the ports in exchange for smuggling tons of copper waste that were stolen by theft cells, that are specialized in stolen electrical and phone cables that are outstanding in columns or that are placed underground, and transporting them to secret warehouses and garages which are used to store contraband, before being re-sold to those importers for nominal sums.

According to the same sources, the General Directorate of Customs, which formed a special committee to investigate in the case, will hear at this time to all the parties that are involved in the attempt to exporting containers of 40 feet, which are packed with copper that is banned from export, by disguising different services of censorship, including agents, inspectors, Chief Inspector and the agents in charge of business operations and agents supervisors of the scanner, thinking that they will not succeed in discovering the real content of the containers before the final shipment on vessels.

Preliminary investigations with one of the importers from Oran (western Algeria), enabled the national gendarmerie services from arresting the brother of the owner of the container who used commercial records with the names of poor persons to smuggle tons of copper waste to Marseille, while the investigation still continued with the rest of importers in Algiers and Oran, especially after receiving information that is confirmed by an international network for smuggling this material from Algeria towards other countries.

Figures that were obtained by Echorouk, from the leadership of gendarmerie, show that their services addressed, during 2015, over 323 cases that are related to the theft of telephone and electrical cables, and the theft of 55,000 meters, which is equivalent to 55 km of telephone and electric cables, and retrieved the amount of 3,379.4 meters of the total 12,503.3 meters of the stolen cables.