Six 'major' drug traffickers from ranks of Polisario arrested in Mali

First Published: 2010-12-10

'Sultan Ould Bady' arrested for drug trafficking, hunt continues for another 'Sultan' for kidnapping, Al Qaeda related terrorism.

Middle East Online

En route to Europe BAMAKO - Malian forces on Thursday arrested six "major" drug traffickers with links to a gang detained in neighbouring Mauritania this week and trafficking in Europe, a security source confirmed. "On Thursday we arrested six major drug traffickers in the Sahara who were associates of the traffickers arrested on Tuesday by the Mauritanian army," the security source said. She said the men come from the ranks of the Polisario Front which is fighting for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco. They were part of "one of the three major networks of traffickers who pass through the Sahara and sell the drugs to Europe," she said. The Mauritanian army said on Wednesday it had killed two men and captured seven during a raid on a band of drug traffickers on the eastern Mauritanian border with Mali on Tuesday. One of those captured is a man known as Sultan Ould Bady, who is believed to be one of two well-known criminals who go by the same name, according to two security sources in Mali. "There is a famous Sultan Ould Bady ... a very big drug dealer wanted by police in the sub-region. "There is a second person named Sultan Ould Bady, who kidnapped and sold several European hostages in the Sahara before joining the ranks of AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb)," said a security source. AQIM operates mainly in Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger, where it has attacked military targets and taken civilian hostages.