This is how goods are monitored from borders to warehouses and a new network against fraud!

Public authorities are moving toward tightening their regulatory grip on Algerian borders, by reorganizing the field deployment of Customs services and quality control and fraud suppression departments, in a step that reflects a trend toward intensifying monitoring at land, sea, and air outlets and areas under Customs control, and besieging various forms of smuggling and cross-border crimes, as well as tightening control over goods entering the national territory.

In this context, the Director General of Customs, Major General Bakhouche, approved, according to what was stated in the latest issue of the Official Gazette, a new decree dated June 1, 2026, which includes the establishment and operation of Customs guard centers, as structural units located at the level of land borders, and assigned field tasks that go beyond traditional guarding to operational support for Customs teams and direct security coordination with National Gendarmerie units.

Under the decree, these centers are responsible for ensuring permanent guarding of the adjacent border strip, in addition to providing operational support to various Customs teams operating within their territorial jurisdiction, and continuous coordination with competent National Gendarmerie units within the framework of combating cross-border crimes.

The tasks did not stop at border control, as the guard centers were also assigned to ensure the security of users and properties belonging to them, as well as ensuring the safety of seized goods until they are delivered to the competent Customs collector, which enhances the chain of securing seizures from the time they are caught until the completion of legal procedures regarding them.

What is striking in the new organization is that the guard centers will work permanently and continuously, day and night, based on a continuous patrol system, which means establishing a continuous field Customs presence at the concerned border points, instead of being limited to coverage during normal working hours.

The decree also stipulated that each center be led by a center head with at least the rank of a squad officer, working under the direct authority of the head of the main inspectorate in charge of Customs guarding, which places these centers within a clear chain of command and gives them an operational character in the field.

In the same direction, the Ministry of Internal Trade and National Market Regulation, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance, raised the level of deployment of quality control and fraud suppression services at the borders, after the number of inspectorates established at the level of land, sea, and air borders, areas, and warehouses under Customs was increased to 53 inspectorates under a joint ministerial decree.

This measure comes within the framework of readjusting the field map of quality control and fraud suppression inspectorates, as the previous list of locations for these inspectorates was replaced with a new list that includes a large number of outlets and sensitive sites across various provinces.

The updated list includes ports, airports, land centers, and areas subject to Customs control, including the Port of Algiers, Port of Oran, Port of Bejaia, Port of Skikda, Port of Annaba, Port of Djen Djen, Port of Mostaganem, and Port of Tenes, along with “Houari Boumediene”, Es-Senia, Constantine, Annaba, Tebessa, Tiaret airports, and others.

The monitoring network also extends to land crossings, such as Oum Teboul, El Haddada, Bouchebka, Maghnia, Colonel Lotfi, Taleb Larbi, Bordj Badji Mokhtar, Timiaouine, In Guezzam, and Tin Zaouatine, as well as areas under Customs control in a number of provinces, especially Algiers, Oran, Boumerdes, Tlemcen, Mostaganem, Skikda, and Illizi.

These measures reveal a trend toward linking Customs control and trade control in the field, by intensifying presence at the borders on one hand, and tightening the inspection of goods and combating fraud on the other hand, which allows narrowing the maneuver spaces for smuggling networks and violating operators, and enhancing coordination between Customs, the National Gendarmerie, and trade services.

This step is of particular importance given the vastness of the Algerian borders and the multiplicity of land, air, and sea outlets, as securing borders and monitoring the movement of goods require a continuous presence and operational coordination between various agencies, which is clearly reflected in the new regulatory texts that redrew the map of Customs and regulatory deployment at the national level.