Casablanca – Eight people died as a possible result of drinking tainted alcoholic beverages in the Nador province of Al-Aroui city, prompting Judicial Police in the region to launch an investigation on the Prosecutor General’s directive.
According to preliminary investigations, the victims purchased alcoholic drinks from a 30-year-old general store proprietor, who was apprehended shortly after the first fatalities were recorded.
On August 23, local officials discovered the bodies of two people who died under unknown circumstances in Al-Aroui city.
Four other deceased people were found in different alleys of the Rifian city in the following 24 hours.
In less than three days, the death toll had risen to eight, including two minors and a sub-Saharan migrant.
The local authorities’ investigation into the accomplices of the suspected supplier of the tainted substances continues.
Investigators are attempting to determine the causal link between the consumed substances and the victims’ cause of death, based on an autopsy.
Read also: Morocco Arrests Suspect for Selling Poisoned Alcoholic Beverages
This is not the first alcohol poisoning case in Morocco. Similar incidences have gradually emerged in the country.
The General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) has carried out numerous related operations recently in the country.
In July 2021, police in Oujda, northern Morocco, detained a person for selling illegally produced alcohol, resulting in at least 14 deaths.
Similarly, in September 2020, authorities in Morocco conducted a crackdown on various locations selling expired and unauthorized alcohol.
During the same year, a similar operation in Marrakech resulted in the seizure of 272 bottles with suspicious customs stamps.
The alcoholic beverages included 34 bottles of expired alcohol and tens of thousands of bottles unsuitable for consumption.
In September 202, police in Fez also confiscated 74,505 untaxed bottles of alcohol.
