Morocco, “ideal” transit point for international drug trafficking
Cocaine, synthetic drugs and other narcotics are increasingly transiting through Morocco, while the country was “formerly a simple exporter of cannabis”, notes the weekly As is, which devotes its front page to the country’s efforts to fight against this trafficking.
“Drugs – How Morocco deals with international trafficking”, headlines the magazine. A cannabis producing country, Morocco has a geographical position which makes it a transit country and a destination country for drugs of all kinds.
“Morocco is at the crossroads of drug trafficking routes of all types. Heroin coming from Asia passes through here before being transported to Europe. Synthetic drugs, like ecstasy, go the opposite way and come to us from Europe. There is also cocaine, which comes directly from Latin America or via West Africa. explains Abderrahim Habib, head of the division for combating transnational crime at the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police.
This traffic is in addition to domestic traffic, that of cannabis, which generally transits through the Strait of Gibraltar to Europe but also serves neighboring Algeria and the Sahel. 82% of cannabis resin seized in the European Union came from Morocco in 2021.
For drug traffickers targeting the European market, Morocco is a transit point “ideal”. Thus the Rio de Janeiro-Casablanca flight had become one of the preferred routes for drug traffickers. “to transport cocaine produced in Latin America through Brazil, which, like Morocco, remains a transit country for drugs”.
According to As isMorocco has strengthened its technological arsenal to combat drug trafficking and track down “mules” : all Moroccan airports are now equipped with scanners capable of performing full body scans (the scanner is capable of detecting traces of drugs beyond clothing, but also on the bodies of the people inspected).
But the drug mafia is increasingly resorting to sophisticated means, notably drones, to “deliver cannabis to the Spanish coast”. These drones “are capable of covering distances of up to 30 kilometers and transporting packages weighing up to 120 kilograms,” precise As is.
