Drug Baron arrested at home by security forces

The gendarmerie squad of the province of Al Oued (southern Algeria) has at last succeeded to bust the drug “baron” who was operating as the mediator within an international network specialized in drug trafficking in Morocco –Algeria axis.

• His arrest came after a scrupulous investigations carried out by these services, crowned by the seizure of an important quantity valued at some 50 thousand Euros, stockpiled in his mansion. The security services have already proceeded to an inspection in the same house but didn’t discover the caches.
• Taking the floor before journalists from “Echourok” and the French newspapers “Liberte”, Le Soir” and “Le jour” the commander of “Al Oued” gendarmerie Dahmane Chaib related the events saying that the culprit known as “Bichat Soufi” was stocking a huge quantity of drug in his luxurious three storey house gorgeously decorated with furniture, while the man was a jobless.
• The man started his contraband activities by smuggling food stuffs to Tunisia than turned to drug trafficking with small quantities transported in cars’ tires receiving 100 French Francs for each kilogram in return.
• The investigators decided to act at 2 pm on purpose because the culprit will be certainly at home napping in those hot days. Backed by well trained dogs the elements of the gendarmerie stormed the house and succeeded to spot the “well wrought” cache 1.20m deep surrounded by sewage system by a well.
• They unravelled about 1.4 ton of drug packed in suitcases ready to be smuggled to Libya stuck inside walls.
• The culprit has admitted that he started his activities in 1996 at a time when the security forces were busy fighting terrorism. He was stocking the drug brought from Morocco in its way to the eastern to Libya.
• Te investigators are working on identifying the network’s two leaders one of them a Moroccan and the other a Libyan one, while 6 other individuals were arrested along with the seizure of 8 vehicles including a four-wheel drive.
• Report released by the communication cell of the national gendarmerie command revealed that the security services foiled the attempts to smuggle more than 6 tons of drug during last May, while the quantity seized since the beginning of the year was estimated at 43 tons.
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