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Rabat – On May 1, Spanish television Channel TV CUATRO released a report that claimed a Moroccan valet was a drug dealer who earns €180,000 a month.
Moroccan authorities have disproved the claims, accusing the TV channel of fabricating the story, and offering car parking valet from Tangier MAD 2,000 (approximately $210) to act as a drug dealer. The journalists told the valet he was taking part in a film about drug smuggling.
Following the report, the valet has been arrested in Morocco, as well a facilitator in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta who acted as a broker between the Spanish journalists and the valet.
The Moroccan General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) has launched a judicial investigation into the incident. While the investigation is still ongoing, preliminary findings suggest TV CUATRO’s crew fabricated the story to attract public interest.
The report has been described as “lousy and detached from all serious journalistic ethics,” and a Moroccan official has called on the Spanish TV channel as well as the production company to publish the necessary photographic license issued by the Moroccan Film Center.
TV CUATRO has denied any wrongdoing and maintains that the valet boasted about paying Moroccan police to keep quiet. Morocco’s police strongly deny this accusation.
Sources from Unicorn, the company that produced the documentary, told Spanish newspaper El Pais “We have been very surprised by the Moroccan police’s statement. We know that in our report they tell uncomfortable truths.”
“How can this famous baron continue the night by guarding a car park for small sums of money?” the Moroccan official wondered.
Further challenging the documentary’s narrative, the official asked, “How does a drug lord earn €180,000 a month while he still living with his mother?”
The Moroccan official called on TV CUATRO to answer these questions instead of resorting to face-saving denials. The same source said that the two individuals —the valet and the broker—are in prison after being prosecuted by the public prosecutor in Tangier.
The source said the suspects have made “serious statements about the Spanish network of journalists involved in this issue.”
The report by TV CUATRO, titled “En El Punto De Mira” or “In the Spotlight,” has since been deleted, pending further investigations to shed more light on the issue.
