Algeria: the businessman Kamel Chikhi arrested after the record seizure of cocaine in Oran
Over 700 kilos of white powder were seized last week in a freight cargo.The goods belongs to a businessman with a controversial course.Story of events.
It is a historic draft that has not finished feeding the suspense in Algeria.Customs, French Navy, Coast Guard and National Gendarmerie services, on Tuesday, May 29, made a seizure of 701 kg of cocaine at the port of Oran.The drug was buried in red boxes with a "halal meat" inscription, charged in containers from Brazil.
The goods, frozen meat, belonged to Kamel Chikhi, an influential importer and property developer.According to security sources, he was arrested in Algiers and his searched warehouses.But at this stage of the investigation, it is not yet known if it is really the brain of this incredible drug trafficking or if its cargo has been used without its knowledge to transport the goods accused.
A record entry
The port of Oran experienced unusual agitation very early in the morning of Tuesday, May 29, report witnesses contacted by Jeune Afrique.The cargo MC Vega Mercury in the harbor since the day before has been escorted by the coast guard of the national gendarmerie towards the quay.He was immediately invested by the customs officers supervised by soldiers, who passed the containers to scan before carrying out their.
The six refrigeration containers, from Brazil, belong to the businessman Kamel Chikhi.They changed boat in Valence, Spain, to be recharged aboard the Vega Mercury, before returning to sea for Oran on May 25.
The taking would have been made possible thanks to the information communicated by the Spanish navy - which was the cargo cargo - to the Algerian authorities.The Spanish authorities preferred to let the ship leave because it was on the road to Algeria.
"The Spaniards have recently signed several legal and security mutuals agreements with Algeria.They were therefore content to send us information without intervening in this case which first implies Algerians, "says an Algerian diplomat.
After the seizure operation, the crew members were all arrested and questioned.The freighter was also sealed during the investigation.The next day, it was the turn of the real estate developer, Kamel Chikhi, to be arrested in Algiers.
Who is Kamel Chikhi?
Originally from Lakhdaria, in the wilaya of Bouira, Kamel Chikhi dit "Kamel Le Boucher", in reference to his first professional activity, invested in the purchase of many land on which he erected luxury residences.These acquisitions were made thanks to "mysterious passers", according to lawyers of local residents who filed a complaint before the administrative courts of Algiers.But no legal proceedings led to a conviction.
In 2014, in the "Sources" district, in Bir Mourad Rais (Algiers), the man appropriated a wooded land of 2,400 square meters to build a tower of fourteen floors.Residents then organized several demonstrations requesting the opening of an investigation to elucidate these urban exceeding.But their many disputes were unable to slow down the earthworks.
"I don't want to shoot ambulances.But the authorities should have act at the time.Everyone was aware of the actions of this person, "said Khaled Bourayou, the lawyer who brought the residents of residents before the courts.For him, Kamel Chikhi benefits from "support in the Algerian administration".
Habib Brahmia, one of the residents, says he was violated and embarked by the police."The inhabitants were dispossessed of a green space assigned to their city in record time.But the police have invested the premises, not to calm them down, but to arrest them, "denounces the one who is also a member of Jil Jadid, opposition party.Following these numerous protests, the town hall decided to stop the work on the site.But Kamel Chikhi decided to relaunch them a few days later, ignoring the decision.
Owner of import-import companies including Amazon Meat and Hit Meat specializing in the trade in butcher's products, man paradoxically cultivates a modest look and is very involved in charity actions.He owns a butcher's shop practicing unbeatable prices in Ben Omar, a district located in the town of Kouba (Algiers).
There, the residents evoke it in very complimentary terms, cite its many gifts to mosques, its multiple helps for poor families or its pilgrimage funding to holy places.
This proximity to mosques and religious circles has earned him the reputation of being a relative of the Islamist party, the movement for society and peace (MSP, opposition).What Nacer Hamdadouche, member of the national office of this party,."This man whose actions are known in all Algiers has no connection with our party," he defends himself.
"It is not a Pablo Escobar, even if it has been the subject of a money laundering suspicion in recent times," said a security source for its part.
Transit zone
As for the modus operandi - the choice of a cargo of frozen meat to hide such a quantity of cocaine - it is anything but fortuitous.These goods usually use a specific corridor, which allows operators to benefit from facilities in terms of customs procedures and to avoid a long wait in the port enclosure, before transit by a dry port.
"A cargo of 701 kg of cocaine also presupposes significant logistical means and high -level complicities", slips a security source.And to add: "This proves that this cartel is not in its first operation of its kind and that there is a network of powerful smugglers which is using Algeria as a cocaine transit zone with to goin Europe and the Middle East ”.
Due to the exorbitant price of cocaine- the pure gram can reach 40,000 dinars (294 euros-)- there is not, in fact, not a large market in this drug in Algeria.The last big cocaine plug dates back to 2015 when 156 kg declared as milk powder were found in the dry port of Baraki, a few kilometers from Algiers.
