Four tones of Moroccan smuggled drugs seized in Algeria

Drugs’ quantity that was seized during the last 3 months reached 4,900 kg I-e 4 tones; most of them were in Tlemcen province (west of Algiers) and Bechar, which are situated in Algerian frontiers with Morocco.According to sources in relation with the file, it’s a “record” number as a total of 709 kg of drugs were seized in the same period in 2007.

Moroccan drug smugglers are trying to “get rid” of the drugs stock and take it to Algeria, said the same sources.

This comes at the same time with harvesting of Indian hemp in Morocco where authorities do not allow producers to store new products in warehouses before handling the old one.

Many smugglers admitted that they had got huge amounts of drugs without paying them because they exchanged them with oil, sources close to investigations told Echorouk Al Yaoumi.

The National Gendarmerie forces seized more than 4 tones of drugs during the period between January and March of 2008, according to a security report.

Opium agriculture fields extending on 76,60 acres in Adrar province (south of Algiers) were discovered during the same period as well as  2,510 of cannabis plants. 

The biggest amounts of cannabis are transplanted in the countryside where two-thirds of peasants are working in the cannabis agriculture which they call “kiff” in their local dialect.

This work brings gains 8 times more than what wheat’s agriculture does.