Joint detachments of the People’s National Army (PNA) eliminated four armed smugglers and recovered weapons and ammunition magazines in an ambush in the Arak area of Tamanrasset, in the 6th Military Region, on Sunday, the Algerian Ministry of Defense said Monday in a statement.
“As part of the fight against smuggling kingpins and drug traffickers, and as part of ongoing efforts to secure the borders and combat smuggling and organized crime in all its forms, joint detachments of the People’s National Army, following an ambush in the Arak area of Tamanrasset Province in the 6th Military Region, eliminated, on 15 March 2026, four armed smugglers and recovered one Kalashnikov submachine gun, five ammunition magazines, along with two four-wheel drive vehicles loaded with a large quantity of psychotropic substances estimated at one million six hundred thousand (1,600,000) hallucinogenic tablets, in addition to two Thuraya communication devices and four mobile phones,” the statement said.
“The outcome of this operation adds to the numerous successful missions carried out daily by detachments of the People’s National Army and different security services across the various regions of our country against such criminals, to secure our border and thwart all attempts to compromise the security and safety of our youth,” the statement added.
