By Atuna
Tuna farmer Mourad Trabelsi, brother in law of the former Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, was arrested Sunday on charges of drug trafficking. The arrest was published by the Tunisia Live Blog and confirmed by sources in Tunisia. A supposed video of the Trabelsi arrest was posted on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQkSGgEj2Lc).
According to sources in the industry the arrest means the fall of the tuna imperium of the Trabelsi clan in Tunisia. The Trabelsi family of ex-president Ben Ali’s wife is widely known for the widespread corruption and plundering of Tunisia. Mourad Trabelsi operated along with the Spanish Fuentes Group four ranches for the fattening of blue fin tuna next to the Tunisian port town of La Chebba.
Together with neighbour courtiers Libya and Malta, Tunisia has a notoriously bad reputation in the compliance of the official measures of the ICCAT to safeguard the diminishing stock of Mediterranean bluefin tuna. Tunisia does not allow any control of the tuna catches in its waters and is believed to be an important link in the trade of illegally catched bluefin.
Imed Trabelsi, another influential member of the family clan, died the 15th of January in a military hospital after being attacked during the uprise in Tunis. Imed Trabelsi was an influential businessman and became more widely known after he was mentioned in a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks that said he was reported to have stolen a yacht belonging to the chairman of the powerful French financial firm Lazard. So far Imed Trabelsi is the only member of the Trabelsi family that has been reported to have died.