Koutari Bouchaib

Koutari Bouchaib was born in Casablanca, Morocco, on the 1st of January 1971. He too was a member of the terrorist cell led by M’Sahel Mohamed, based in Milan. He was also linked to individuals part of Hizb Ut Tahrir.

Koutari was initially identified as an individual linked to Ben Yahia Mouldi, a prime figure of international terrorism based in Cremona, in northern Italy, who had been arrested in 2001. His name was then connected to those of Tarkhani Houcine and M’Sahel Mohamed.
He first met M’Sahel at the Mosque in Via Padova in Milan between 2001 and 2002, and he introduced M’Sahel to Ghayour Amine, who would also later become a member of Mohamed’s cell.

While Koutari, like Ghayour, was not directly involved in the planning of the terrorist attacks that M’Sahel was discussing with the Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and other members of his cell, he lived in the same apartment as M’Sahel and was therefore always well briefed regarding his operations. One such instance was when in the summer of 2005, when M’Sahel tried to enter Iraq to join the fight against coalition forces, Koutari hosted in their apartment another terrorist called Majrar Anouar, who was waiting in Milan to receive his passport from France to then join M’Sahel.
When M’Sahel was in Morocco in January 2006, he requested Koutari’s brother to aid him in exchanging some currency that would then have been given to Touri Abdelhak, a jihadist volunteer for Iraq.

Koutari was instrumental to the jihadist projects of the group mainly through the money he gained through drug dealing, an activity he managed together with Ghayour and other accomplices. Koutari had already been arrested in 2003 near Milan together with Ghayour for drug dealing.
When one of their dealers got arrested both Koutari and Ghayour stepped up to take on their associate’s responsibilities and secure the deals with their numerous clients. His leading position was further confirmed when, after the arrest of M’Sahel and later Ghayour, he was able to instruct other accomplices first to go to M’Sahel’s apartment and retrieve some of the money hidden there (not found by the authorities during their initial search), then to go to Ghayour’s apartment and retrieve 800 grams of cocaine and sell it.
An irregular in Italy, after M’Sahel’s and Ghayour’s arrests in March of 2006, Koutari managed to get hold of a false passport and escape to Morocco before he could be apprehended and expelled. He had also been contacted by Ghayour from prison with the request to – with the aid of a lawyer – get the Italian authorities to release the seizure of the 117.000€ that had been found in Ghayour’s apartment (a product of their drug dealing activities).

It is also interesting to know that after M’Sahel’s arrest in Morocco, Koutari and the other members grew increasingly restless, and Koutari demonstrated some expertise in police practice when laying out the possibilities that had led up to M’Sahels apprehension. He also worked to inform other members of the terrorist network, notably Tarkhani, that M’Sahel had been arrested and that calls towards him were not to be made, so as to avoid further scrutiny from the authorities.

So, Koutari’s activities were instrumental in supporting the terrorist cell. In fact, while he and Ghayour amassed a sizable amount of money, the group lived way below their means, indicating that much of that money was spent to finance all terrorism-related activities. Koutari was irregular on Italian soil, and during a search, Italian authorities found his forged residence permit.
Koutari’s location remains unknown, despite an arrest warrant from Italian authorities in 2009.