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Rabat – Police have seized 160 kilograms of cannabis in Tangier from a Moroccan drug trafficker attempting to embark to Europe.
On Wednesday evening, police and customs officers stopped a Moroccan national at Tangier Med Port who was trying to smuggle cannabis in the form of cannabis resin (chira) to Europe.
The drug, which was concealed in a Belgium-registered car, was discovered during a vehicle scan. Police dogs were also involved in the operation.
The 39-year-old culprit was arrested and placed in custody for an investigation by Tangier’s judicial police. The investigation will be carried out under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor’s office.
Cannabis resin is one of the most exported drugs in Morocco and has continuously been the subject of seizures in past years. The demand for the drug in Europe is very high due to its powerful and high-yield hybrid varieties.
In fact, Morocco is the largest supplier of cannabis resin for Europe, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In 2014, 302 tons and 85 percent of all cannabis resin seizures in Spain were linked to Morocco.
Spain has played an important role for Morocco’s drug trafficking, as it is the closest European country and therefore used as gateway to all the others. Other popular points of entry are Portugal, France, and Italy.
According to the UNODC World Drug Report of 2017, Morocco has the third highest cannabis resin seizures among countries worldwide. The kingdom comes behind Spain and Pakistan.
Other drugs that Spain and Europe have increasingly imported are heroin and cocaine. The latter has also been the subject of numerous seizures lately. A UNODC report from 2011 suggested that the traditional trafficking route from Morocco to Spain, used to import cannabis resin to Europe, has also been used for cocaine.
