Karim Benkhelif, a 41-year-old French-Algerian nicknamed “Mâchoire” and suspected of being one of France’s biggest drug traffickers, was arrested on Sunday 30 May 2021 at Lisbon Airport as he stepped off a flight from Dubai.[1] He was the subject of two European arrest warrants issued by France and Spain.[1] He was on the list of “priority targets” of the Ofast, France’s anti-narcotics office, and was wanted in an investigation by Paris investigating judges of the national jurisdiction for organised crime, JUNALCO.[1] The arrest was reported by Agence France-Presse from a police source, confirming a report by the French radio station Europe 1.[1]
France's "Mâchoire" held at Lisbon airport over tonnes of cannabis
Portuguese officers arrested Karim Benkhelif, a 41-year-old French-Algerian known as "Mâchoire", at Lisbon Airport on 30 May 2021 as he stepped off a flight from Dubai. He was wanted on French and Spanish European arrest warrants and is suspected of importing several tonnes of cannabis into France.
🇵🇹 Lisbon Airport, Lisbon · Portugal
- Arrested
- 1
- Case stage
- Under investigation
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
- Arrested
- 1
- Agency type
- Anti-narcotics agency, Police
- Activity
- Trafficking
- Setting
- Airport
- Case stage
- Under investigation
Sources
- RTLrtl.frFRPortugal : un gros trafiquant de drogue franco-algérien, surnommé "Mâchoire", arrêté
Open questions the AI reported
- No cannabis quantity seized from Benkhelif at the airport and no value for this arrest were published; the "several tonnes" figure is the Ofast's general suspicion about his group's imports, not a haul found on him.
- The June 2021 AFP accounts describe him only as a drug trafficker without naming the substance; the cannabis link comes from the later AFP report of October 2021 grouping him with suspected cannabis importers.
- No extradition to France, charge or court date for the Lisbon arrest was reported in the opened sources.
- The Le Figaro and Le Parisien pages could not be opened (login wall and paywall), so any later trial coverage could not be used.
- Left out, as its quotation was not found in Barlamane.com: Barlamane, citing a police source, likewise dated the arrest to early June 2021 at Lisbon Airport.
- Left out, as its quotation was not found in 20 minutes: In October 2021 AFP grouped Benkhelif, known as "Mâchoire", with two other arrest targets, saying they were suspected of having imported several tonnes of cannabis into France and were among the Ofast's "priority interest targets".
- Left out, as its quotation was not found in 20 minutes: According to the same account, the Ofast's priority is to track major traffickers, often based abroad, through an intelligence unit of about 30 people.
