Suspicion of Smuggling Weapons, Explosives in Spare Parts' Containers

Customs’ General Directorate ordered, in an instruction that was sent to the Heads of Customs’ Inspectorate Teams at ports, the tightening of control and inspection on all containers that come from Malta and Malaysia, through the use of Scanner and automated system for control to prevent the diversion of any suspected goods, especially weapons and explosives.

Precautionary measures by the customs services target the ships that come from Malta and Malaysia, after information that was received by the Customs’ Intelligence Teams, regarding attempts by a number of Algerians, whether expatriate or those who hold foreign nationalities, in collusion with arms dealers in Malaysia and Malta, for the smuggling of arms using the camouflaged containers that are declared as containing new spare parts, following the arrest of Algerians by the French security services who hold the French citizenship, in possession of quantities of arms that were directed to Algerian, through declaring them as cars’ spare parts in containers from which came from Malta through the port of Marseille.

Customs’ General Manager, Kaddour Ben Taher, ordered the Regional Managers of Ports, to tighten inspection on containers to repel attempts to fraud through false declarations of goods, especially after the last operation that was foiled by the Customs’ Inspectorate, when an importer presented a false declaration regarding the import of a container that contained electronic devices of the type “electronic items”, and after the inspection, customs found that the goods are spy gadgets, and seized 8869 spy gadgets, including 8589 surveillance cameras and 1900 sensitive devices of the type “DVR “.