Smuggling Gangs Clash in Western Sahara Cities, Sparking Terror Among Residents

Smugglers clashed in Dakhla and Laâyoune. On Sunday, hooded individuals belonging to a smuggling network attacked the residence of a member of a rival network, causing significant damage to his car park and the surroundings of the house, reports the daily Assabah.

Three other neighborhoods in Dakhla, namely Al Amal, Al Kassam and Kssikssate, also received the visit of these hooded individuals, sowing terror among the local population who asked the competent prosecutor’s office to open an investigation.

For the population, it would be a settling of scores between two smuggling networks, one accusing the other of having informed the royal gendarmerie of the arrival of one of its containers of smuggled goods. The container in question was indeed intercepted by the gendarmerie 130 kilometers from Dakhla, at the level of the Bouirda area. The smuggled goods were seized, causing huge losses for this network. A situation that entirely benefits the rival network which was seeking to establish its monopoly. It is this impression of having been betrayed that motivated the clashes.

For the moment, the two networks, very active in the international trafficking of cigarettes, drugs and other products in the region, continue to wage a merciless war.