Rabat – Security services at the Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca have arrested a South African and a Namibian with 3.7 kilograms of cocaine inside their stomachs.
The two passengers were arrested on December 24 at Mohammed V airport when they arrived on a flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Casablanca police department said in a statement on Tuesday.
The passengers carried a total of 187 capsules of cocaine concealed inside their stomachs: 101 capsules in the South African and 86 in the Namibian.
Police transported the two passengers to Ibn Rochd University Hospital Center in Casablanca to remove the cocaine from their stomachs. They are currently in custody for further investigation under the supervision of the prosecutor’s office.
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The arrests came a week after security services at the Mohammed V International Airport had arrested a sub-Saharan passenger with nearly 2 kilograms of cocaine inside her stomach.
The arrested passenger had also arrived on a flight from Sao Paulo.
On December 19, Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Intelligence (BCIJ) seized a boat loaded with cocaine in El Jadida, near Casablanca.
On December 15, the BCIJ also found a farm in Boujdour, a city in the Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra region, used by a drug network for cocaine trafficking and storage.
The operation followed the arrest of seven individuals in possession of one ton of cocaine earlier this month.
The criminal network attempted to smuggle cocaine between Morocco, the US, Latin America, and Europe.
In 2018, police seized 1.65 tons of cocaine, over 1.3 million psychotropic and ecstasy pills (up 43 percent over 2017), 52 tons of cannabis resin, and 693 kilograms of cannabis.
