Morocco’s Makhzen to the “rescue” of its nefarious drug smugglers through Websites
Seizures of hashish, cocaine and heroin smuggled from neighboring Morocco skyrocketed in Algeria since late last year, the head of the national anti-drug office said, citing “colossal efforts” made by Algerian Gendarmerie, police and customs officials to combat this scourge.
A Gendarmerie officer based in the Tlemcen region said seizures of cannabis resin smuggled from Morocco into Algeria nearly had tripled from 53 tons to 157 tons over the past few years adding that eight drug smugglers aged between 27 and 60 years’ old had been rounded in the western part of the country.
The upturn was even sharper for cocaine, with the figure soaring from 11kg to 183kg.
In one incident, the gendarmerie announced recently that 165kg of cocaine were found at the port in Algiers in a container coming from New Zealand.
For heroin, the rise was to six kg from 2.5.
Large shipments of cannabis are regularly seized in Algeria, particularly near the border with Morocco.
Some of the cannabis produced in Morocco is smuggled with the covert blessing of the Moroccan authorities into Algeria either for export or for local consumption.
Nearly four tons of cannabis with a street value of around €1.6m have been seized in Algeria near border with Morocco, customs officials said on Sunday.
The seizure came after customs officers pursued a vehicle that was then abandoned outside the border town of Maghnia.
The driver managed to escape from the vehicle, which had been registered in both countries, and in which the smuggled drugs were found.
Algerian Customs officials report regular seizures of cannabis in the area, with more than 25 tons impounded since the beginning of the year.
Furthermore, thirty kilogramme of cannabis resin was seized in Beni Saf and 15 illegal immigrants were arrested in In-Guezzam by units of the People’s National Army, said Sunday the Ministry of National defence in a communiqué.
“As part of the measures to strengthen border security and fight against smuggling and organized crime, units of the coastguards of the operational area of Ain Temouchent (2ndMilitary Region) seized, on Saturday 18 km north of Beni Saf, 30 kg of cannabis resin smuggled from Morocco into the national territory,” said the communiqué.
A detachment of the the People’s National Army of the operational area of In-Guezzam (6thMilitary Region) intercepted 15 illegal immigrants of various African nationalities,” added the communiqué.