International drug smuggling gang busted in the province of El Oued

The criminal court of Constantine, eastern Algeria, has the day before yesterday ruled on the case of a dangerous gang including 18 individuals from the different North African countries namely, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco involved in a large scale drug trafficking.

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• The criminals were charged with money laundering, drug smuggling and constitution of organized criminal group with the use of forged documents.
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• The court has sentenced the defendants O. B (39), C.A.A (31), K.M (33), B.A (44) and O.A (31) to life while S. K ( 24) a Tunisian national has benefited from a reduction in penalty and was sentenced to 20 years unlike the others.
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• 8 convicts aging between 29 and 50 are still at large among them Algerians from the provinces of Tlemcen, Ouargla, El- Oued and Batna in addition to a Libyan called Abdellah and a Moroccan national.
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• The events go back to June 2009 when the national gendarmerie services of the province of El Oued , south east Algeria, have lodged a complaint against the convicts following intelligence that O. B was hiding in his house huge quantity of drug , estimated between 14 and 16 quintals.
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• The main has revealed to the investigators that he befriended a Libyan when he travelled there in 1997 and proposed him to smuggle drug and play the middleman between him and the Moroccan traffickers in exchange of 100 Euros per kilogram of drug.
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• The drug was crossing thorough Algeria coming from Morocco to Libya in skilfully equipped cars. He has indicated that he was threatened to death by four individuals who were impressed by his hiding place at home.
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• After various deliberations, the criminal court has confirmed the sentence pronounced before against the convicts; leaving their families in a state of shock.