Court Appearance: Abdallah Hidou and Police Investigation

court appearance: Known as 'Malohiya', from the name of tomato leaves used to produce a popular sauce, Abdallah Hidou was caught in late November, after a year-long police investigation supported by the European Union, according to Deutsche Welle. He is due to make his first court appearance in the coming weeks. Although the man is a local celebrity, so much so that even kids in the street know him, as one of his former colleagues told DW, the operation went completely unreported in the country. His arrest opens a window on the reality of human smuggling, in a country which the EU sees as a strategic partner in efforts to reduce northbound movements of people to Libya, and eventually to the shores of Italy. At the beginning, we only knew his nickname and that he was the one deciding when, from where and which convoys of pickup trucks would leave Agadez with migrants to cross the desert the police communique stated. Migrant Ba Massa from Guinea wants to leave Agadez and move on Longer routes to evade police checks According to a communique released by the Spanish police in late December, agents had been hunting Malohiya since 2017, when a joint investigative team, made up of Nigerien, French and Spanish police, was set up in Niger with EU funds. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.