Illicit Flows And Trafficking Southern Europe-Maghreb
armed gangs . In all , there are hybrids and a strong toxic cocktail of jihad and smuggling .
• Another concern is raised by the return from Syria and Iraq of jihadists to the Maghreb by land : Algerians , Moroccans , or Tunisians .
• In January 2018 , the Islamist and Libyan Brigade al-Jouili , named after its leader Osama al-Jouili , attacked the border post of Ras Jedir ( on the Libyan side ) with heavy weapons in order to regain control of it ( and the juicy traffic ). Fighting with the post ’ s security agents , there were two deaths and finally the brigade withdrew .
• In April 2017 , in a Tunisian car leaving for Libya carried several hundred thousand euros in gold bars and US dollars . 22 One was found , but how many pass ?
• Criminal groups from Nigeria set up in the ports of the Gulf of Gabes . They are there to retrieve drugs first delivered in the Gulf of Guinea , crossing the Sahara , to bring them to Europe .
2016
In March , the Islamic State tried to create a caliphate on the border area between Ben Gardane and Ras Jedir . The Tunisian army intervened in force . This resulted in the failure of the I . E ., with fifty dead .
2015
In March , there was an Islamist attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis , with twenty-four dead and forty-five wounded .
2013
The period of 2011 – 2013 is chaotic in Tunisia as in Libya . Armed Islamists introduce in Tunisia anti-tank rocket launchers , ground-to-air missiles ( Manpads ), assault rifles , grenades , 23 anti-personnel mines , explosives and detonators , and handguns — the whole arsenal of a future civil war . 24 In Tunisia ? For nearby Algeria ? For sale on the black market ? No one then seemed to know . In Tunisia itself , several armed jihadist attacks targeted weakened law enforcement forces and , at the borders , those forces were unable to confront smugglers backed , weapons in hand , by their clans and tribes .
22 “ Ras Jedir : Seizure of a Large Quantity of Gold Bars ,” Tunisia 14 , April 13 , 2017 .
23 “ Seizure of a hand grenade in the possession of a Libyan citizen at the border post of Ras Jedir ,” Digital Tunisia , December 14 , 2017 .
24 Moncef Kartas , “ Tunisia and the Security Corollaries of the Libyan Revolution ,” Small Arms Survey 2013 .
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