Morocco disbands two drug trafficking rings

Rabat - Morocco announced on Wednesday it has broken up two rings specialised in drug trafficking and arrested several of their suspected members

   A statement of the Casablanca attorney general said the first ring of eleven people, including two women, was committing robberies, attacks and drug trafficking and used firearms of different calibers and weapons with a blade.

   Several people had lodged complaints saying they were victims of attacks by hooded individuals armed with knives and firearms, the source said.

   A second ring, the number of whose members was not specified, was also broken up. The suspected members are believed to have been selling hard drugs (cocaine) across the north African country, according to the statement.

   It adds that the probe found that these individuals were operating part of an organised network of drug-trafficking, noting that the ring’s members have developed links with other criminal groups to enlarge their scope of activity. They were also benefiting from the protection of high-positioned officials, who will be interrogated, according to the directives of the prosecution, it said.

   The suspected drug traffickers were brought before the Attorney General, who decided to transfer them to the investigating judge.

   The statement says that Morocco’s anti-drug trafficking efforts allowed for seizing, in the period 2008-2009, 400 tons of kif, 15 tons of tobacco, 88 tons of cannabis resin, 180 tons of cannabis oil. Services have also seized 34 kg of heroine, 53 kg of cocaine, and 77,000 psychotropic pills, it said. 

   In addition, 2,147 land, sea and air transport means were seized and 47,384 people, including 973 foreigners, have been arrested for drug-trafficking charges, it said, noting that these and any future arrests and questionings are held under the supervision of the Attorney General and in the total respect of the law.

   The document also notes that 9,800 hectares growing cannabis were destroyed in 2009.