Rabat – Gendarmes in Morocco arrest 20 young men attempting to violate Ramadan’s piety and general restrictions of state of emergency and night curfew. Officers arrested the young men in a private villa in Harhoura, just outside Rabat, on the grounds of illegal assembly, violation of the state of emergency restrictions, as well as illegal substance abuse.
According to Moroccan newspaper Al Akhbar, authorities carried out a surprise raid on the villa at Casino Plage, on the suspicion of illegal substance use, the smoking of hookah (also known as shisha), as well as a general breach of assembly laws.
By the order of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, security services released everyone they arrested — after noting their identities — with the exception of the villa’s owner. They placed him in detention and will refer the case to the King’s attorney of Temara, for a “follow-up on charges of preparing a den for the consumption of shisha and drugs and non-compliance with the provisions of the state of health emergency,” reports the Moroccan newspaper.
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Since Ramadan began, the Moroccan police, in coordination with the gendarmes, have made concentrated efforts to suppress illegal assembly and breach of night curfew. The local authorities “carry out sudden raids of some neighborhoods and sites suspected of harrowing and possibly embracing customers of [shisha], drugs and sex, especially after they received a torrent of official complaints of citizens fed up with the suspicious movements of some strangers and addicts.”
Security services have intensified their surveillance, particularly during the night period, to monitor violators of the night curfew. The authorities have apprehended people from Rabat, Temara, and Skhirat, as well as seized shisha pipes and other “means and equipment used in their preparation,” as well as a significant amount of drugs intended for consumption.
The night curfew is now again part of the national state of emergency, which has been in place since March 2020 in order to contain the spread of COVID-19.
