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Dubai – Morocco’s latest crackdown on profiteering off fake PCR test results has led to the arrest of six people in Oujda, including two doctors, for the alleged participation in the activity.
Morocco’s General Directorate for National Security (DGSN) led an investigation that unearthed an organized criminal network responsible for forgery and sale of falsified negative PCR test results. After selling negative PCR test results, the suspects would share the money between the main two figures and the rest of the group, according to a DGSN press release.
In one of the suspects’ home in Oujda, the DGSN found dozens of forged COVID-19-related testimonials, false negative test results, a doctor’s stamp bearing the credentials of a university hospital, more than MAD 278,000 ($ 31,000), unspecified sum of money in Euros, a carm four “suspicious” number plates, and five “cold weapons” (weapons that do not use explosives or gunpowder), the DGSN noted.
Pending further investigations into the case, the suspects have been taken into police custody and put through the judicial process. “Those involved in committing these criminal acts do not harm the health security of all male and female citizens,” the DGSN said.
On August 24, Moroccan officials held a meeting at the Ministry of Interior to address the growing number of falsified COVID-19 documents in the country. Government investigators who have looked into the issue have routinely encountered fraudulent certificates and vaccine passes, according to a press statement.
Following the meeting, Morocco’s public prosecutor announced the government’s determination to crackdown on the falsification of PCR tests. There has been an “increasingly frequent use of these practices” in Morocco, the prosecutor’s office explained, adding that this not only breaks local law but it also compromises efforts to curb the spread of the pandemic.
