From: Africa Times
Algerian-born Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the leader of al-Qaeda affiliate al-Murabitoon, is one of the world’s most wanted terrorists and one of Africa’s most dangerous men. A former mujahedeen fighter against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Belmokhtar went on to join the Islamist insurgency in Algeria in the 1990s and later became a leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). He captured international headlines by ordering the attack on the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria in January 2013, taking hundreds hostage and leaving 38 dead. Later that same year, he masterminded suicide attacks in Niger that killed 25 more. Despite numerous attempts by the U.S. and other countries to kill him, Belmokhtar continues to menace northern and western Africa, with his group claiming responsibility for the bloody hotel Radisson attack in Bamako, Mali.
While he is most widely known for the bloodshed at In Amenas, Belmokhtar’s ascent in North Africa’s jihadist circles was financed by a $1 billion North African network in contraband tobacco he helped create. After successfully ransoming European hostages in 2003, he developed an underground trading business throughout the Sahara that was built along ancient salt roads used by Tuareg tribes. By marrying himself to the daughters of powerful Tuareg families, Belmokhtar secured the routes he needed to transport smuggled cigarettes from Ghana, Benin, and Togo all the way up to Algeria and the Mediterranean beyond. Belmokhtar’s venture was so successful that it has earned him the nickname “Mr. Marlboro” ever since. Contraband tobacco is big business throughout the continent: Africans smoke 400 billion cigarettes a year, and 60 billion of those have been smuggled.
