The operation comes a week after the BCIJ apprehended a five-member terror cell operating in Tetouan, Northern Morocco.
Rabat – Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) has dismantled a four-member terrorist cell in Al Haouz, in a province in the Marrakech-Safi region.
The extremist suspects, aged between 25 and 40 were arrested for their alleged links with ISIS.
A statement from the BCIJ said that the arrests enabled the security services to monitor a farm in Ourika, 30 kilometers from Marrakech which is owned by one of the cell members. The cell used the farm to manufacture explosives. BCIJ announced that they seized several chemicals and suspicious liquids during the raid.
BCIJ also seized electronic devices, knives, telescopes, and an unspecified amount of money.
A preliminary investigation shows that the leader of the terror cell has forged “suspicious relations with active members in order to plan terror attacks in the kingdom using explosive devices.”
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The leader, according to the statement, recruited and trained the other members of the cell.
The suspects are in police custody pending further investigation.
The arrest comes a week after another BCIJ operation to crackdown on a five-member cell on June 18 in Tetouan, Northern Morocco.
Investigations showed that the suspects had pledged allegiance to the self-styled “emir” of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The operations are part of Morocco’s strategy to counter terrorism.
Today’s operation is the third of its kind this month as the first took place on June 3, when BCIJ dismantled a three-member terrorist cell operating in several cities in the region of Draa-Tafilalet.