Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has noted Moroccan efforts to counter organized crime, money laundering, and drug smuggling, highlighting the country’s efforts to support addiction treatment during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
INCB reviewed Moroccan efforts in fighting drug smuggling in its latest 2021 report. The board pointed to “the country’s geographical location as a gateway between Europe and Africa makes it a conduit for smuggling, trafficking in drugs and in persons, money laundering, and clandestine migration.”
The drug trafficking includes Moroccan hashish and Latin American cocaine destined to Europe. The money generated from the operations is laundered through the purchase of the real estate, vehicles, and jewelry.
Read also: Money Laundering: How Moroccan Cannabis Becomes Emirati Gold
“Money-transfer services present a vulnerability owing to the volume of funds remitted. Annual remittance transfers rose to $6.7 billion in 2019, accounting for 5.6 percent of GDP. The majority of transfers originate in Europe,” added the report.
Notably, Morocco is the second-largest global source of cannabis resins after Afghanistan, generating 18% of the total cannabis supply.
Several African countries reported trafficking cases of cannabis including Benin, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, and Sudan. In 2020, Moroccan authorities seized more than 450 tons of smuggled cannabis.
Moroccan authorities also seized more than 1.3 tonnes of cocaine at Tanger Med port in October 2021 and two cocaine shipments of 460 kilograms from Brazil and 1,539 kilograms from Colombia in January 2021, said the report.
Read Also: Morocco Ratifies Decree to Start Legal Cannabis Industry
To consolidate the country’s efforts in countering drug trafficking, the Moroccan government ratified on March 4 draft decree 2.22.159 that implements certain legal provisions of bill 13.21. Initiated in March 2021, the bill authorizes the cultivation of cannabis for medical and industrial purposes. It also provides a framework for the creation of a national cannabis agency.
Additionally, “Morocco has been strengthening its anti-money laundering regime through coordination and capacity building” as well as adopting “a national risk assessment and institutionalizing a national committee to coordinate the country’s anti-money,” said INCB.
Through increasing money laundering investigations, money laundering criminal cases reached 193 in 2020 compared to 30 in 2019.
Even under ongoing COVID-19, Morocco has carried out addiction treatment, reported INCB, adding that the country provided telemedicine services and initiated a “take home policy for methadone for those enrolled in opioid substitution therapy programs.”
The Ministry of Health also launched an e-learning module on drug use prevention for NGOs and healthcare professionals as well as a pilot center for people in prison. Four other centers are expected to open in different Moroccan regions, stated the report.
