Abdellatif Zoache

Abdellatif Zoache, also known as Bahja, was born in Morocco on July 3 1964. At the time of the investigation, he was living in Saviano, in the province of Naples. He was found to be the leader of a network that worked to procure forged identity documents. The network in Naples was part of a broader extremist group that included members part of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), and that contributed to sending individuals to Pakistan and Afghanistan to receive paramilitary training. He also lived together with Giacca Anna, another suspect in this investigation.
Zoache was put under surveillance by Italian authorities in early 1998 as he was in contact with Dah Dah (alias for Essaadi Moussa), who was already being surveilled for his role in forging false documents. The two had very frequent calls to discuss the price for procuring the documents, negotiate their acquisition, and coordinate for their clients. Among their clients were both foreigners and Italians as at least in one instance Zoache talked over the phone with a certain Alfredo regarding the forgery of a driving license; in many other instances, the clients were North African. In those phone calls while particular terms were occasionally used to hide the true nature of the conversation, oftentimes the terminology was clear in its reference to illegally acquired documents.
In February Zoache also talked with an Algerian named Abdelkader, inquiring about the possibility of sending his girlfriend to Germany, reaching her there with fake documents and marrying her there to regularise his legal status in the country.
In March 1998 Zoache was also contacted by some Algerians living in London. They wanted to join their networks and asked him to send them false documents when they required them, Zoache responded positively to the proposal. In this conversation he also referenced a batch of blank documents that had been stolen 2 years prior from Neapolitan authorities. Some of those documents would have been later found in the hands of jihadists involved with the GIA, and with the war in the Balkans.
In the last intercepted call, in March, Dah Dah called Zoache to inform him that the police had raided his apartment and seized much of the material used to falsify the documents. Having established Zoache’s role in the jihadist network, the Court of Bologna requested his arrest in March of 2000.