Security Services Arrest An International Criminal Cell That Smuggles Arms From Turkey

Trial of 14 people on Tuesday evening before Algiers Dar Bida criminal court, revealed a serious criminal activity of an international gang of smuggling arms and ammunition that are imported from Turkey, which are passed through Tunisia and the eastern border of the state of Tebessa, for use as a winning trade, after selling them to criminals gangs’ members in both Algiers and Setif, for use in acts of violence, criminality and blackmailing citizens.

In addition to the report that was published by Echorouk on the case in previous editions, the file, according to the public hearing, stated on Tuesday that the cell is led by a person named “F.A”, who comes from Tebessa and who is in escape after issuing international arrest warrants against him.

His partners, who exchanged roles to transport shipments of weapons in the vehicles of the type “Mercedes” that were prepared for this purpose, by providing them with secret places to hide the arms so that the security services can not discover them, but their activity was thwarted by the research group of Bouira National Gendarmerie, after receiving confirmed information about the movements of suspicious people in smuggling military weapons, including “automatic pistols and pumped nuts” across the eastern border of the country, that were transferred from Tabessa to Barika area in ​Batna, to be sold in both Setif and Algiers, and trading among other gangs there for use in violence.

Security services arrested two shipments of weapons and three persons. After the search, a total of 57 million centimes of weapons were stored in places specially designed to hide those shipments.

As part of the investigations, it was found that the gang used additional cars to camouflage and secure the road during the transport process and to avoid roadblocks.

The security services then expanded their investigation on the suspects to find other evidence condemning them, after seizing additional quantities of weapons of Category V and ammunition in the house of the accused “K.M”, and the nickname “Almancho”, the latter admitted that he purchased a piece of weapons from a person called “A.F” for 25 million centimes, and with exploitation of his words, the rest of the cell was arrested, while the leader remained in escape, as these the facts were denied by all the defendants during their confrontation with the tribunal, asserting that they don’t know the source of the weapons, and that the purpose of the acquisition was to use them in family celebrations and weddings without recognizing their criminal intent to do so.