Seizure Of 32 Tons Of Drugs And 25 Thousand Smugglers Sentenced In Drug-Related Cases

The latest report issued by the National Office for Drug Control and Addiction warned against the large quantities of Moroccan drugs entering illegally the Algerian border every year.
In the language of the figures, the report revealed that the various security services had seized more than 32 tons of cannabis resin in Algeria in 2018, 61% of which were intercepted in the western part of the country, adding that the quantity of narcotics has doubled by 25 times since 2003.
The report cited, to this effect, the overall statistics issued by the anti-narcotics services of the National Gendarmerie, the Police and the Customs.
The amount of cannabis resin seized in 2018 declined by 39.30 percent over the previous year, it noted. This is due to the bolstering of the security apparatus at the border level, despite the decrease in the quantity of smuggled drugs, but it remains “high”, the report added.
28.99 per cent of the drugs were seized in the south of the country while 5.05 percent were confiscated in the east and 4.33 percent in the central part of the country, it also said.
In the case of hard drugs, the total amount of cocaine seized increased significantly from 6.277.407 grams in 2017 to 671.887.093 grams in 2018.
The amount of heroin seized hiked for its part from 2.120.965 grams in 2017 to 4.324.20 g in 2018.
The fact-finding report also showed a 50.43 percent increase in the number of unlicensed hallucinogens. In 2018, the number of related seizures reached 1,807,843.
According to the figures provided by the relevant security departments, 49,749 persons were involved in drug-related cases, an increase of 17.24 per cent, including 260 foreigners, according to the same figures while 1,048 others are still on the run.
The National Bureau of Narcotics Control and Addiction also revealed that among the defendants involved, there are 9,942 drug smugglers, 25,976 are cannabis users, 7.364 are hallucinogenic pills smugglers, 6,916 are hallucinogenic pills users, and in the hard drugs case, 61 are cocaine smugglers and 43 others are heroin users.