Police Officers, Flight Attendants Smuggle Gold Bars to Dubai
Security investigations recently launched by the border police services at Algiers International Airport revealed serious details regarding the involvement of Air Algerie employees in smuggling currency and gold bars abroad, without subjecting them to customs control, led by a flight attendant accompanied by police officers, who were able to pass them inside the safety box of the plane, which was about to take off towards Dubai Airport, for a jeweller who is wanted by justice.
Algiers Dar Baida Misdemeanors Court will open the file, days after the accusation against eight employees of Air Algérie, including the so-called “Ch. Hacene” a wanted jeweller, a security guard affiliated with the border police and the chief of the flight attendants of Air Algérie, on charges of forming a criminal group to prepare a misdemeanour, and violating the customs legislation related to the regulation of exchange and movement of capital to and from abroad, abuse of office and referring them to trial after the end of the investigation that started last October.
According to the information obtained by Echorouk, the judicial police services affiliated with the security of the state of Algiers have launched intensive security investigations based on a report they received after foiling a smuggling operation of a sum of money in hard currency estimated at 96.5 thousand euros, equivalent to one billion and 400 million centimes in the national currency according to the price of official exchange, in addition to seizing three gold bars inside tightly hidden bags on an Air Algerie plane, which was preparing to take off towards Dubai International Airport, where the seized items were found during a routine inspection in the framework of customs and security control before the flight departure.
The package created an emergency and this necessitated the use of security elements during their investigations with camera recordings and a review of the phone calls made between members of the flight crew to find out the circumstances of the process of penetrating customs control to hide bags of gold and money.
The initial investigations and the hearing of the suspects resulted in the confession of a jewellery dealer named “Ch. Mohamed Amine” that the seized items were received from a person named “S.H” who is currently in Turkey, who asked him to deliver them in Dubai in return for paying his travel costs, with the help of a policeman named “Zouhir.Ch”, who took over the task of bringing money and gold bars to the airport, taking advantage of the opportunity not to be subject to security and customs control, then he put it on the plane, to be received later by the flight attendant after takeoff and she is a relative of the fugitive accused before her colleague realized the matter and the notified security services after finding the seized items via a loudspeaker. Same plan to pass gold and coin.
The accused also admitted during the investigation that he had previously carried out similar smuggling operations toward Turkey with the help of the flight attendant and that they followed the same plan to smuggle the gold and hard currency.
On the other hand, one of the policemen admitted that he had received a sum of 25 million centimes, in exchange for an agreement with the traveller “S. Mohamed Amine” to help him smuggle gold bars and money, pending more details during the trial.
