Moroccan police seized Monday, October 18, 1.35 tonnes of cocaine in Tangier (north) from Brazil, one of the largest quantities of white powder seized in Morocco in recent years, according to the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN) .
"The national security services at the port of Tanger Med thwarted a major international drug and psychotropic drug trafficking operation on Monday and seized one ton and 355 kg of cocaine,"
the DGSN said in a statement.
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Police were alerted to the suspicious method of sealing a container aboard an
undisclosed
"European state"
cruise ship
that had left Brazil for the ports of Antwerp (Belgium) and Portbury (southern England). Following a search conducted by the police dog team, the drug was discovered packed and hidden in 40 black suitcases, adds the DGSN.
"This security operation is part of the ongoing efforts (...) to fight against international cocaine trafficking operations and neutralize the dangers and threats emanating from transnational organized crime networks
,
" said the
press release.
An investigation was opened
"with a view to identifying all the people linked to this criminal network involved in the attempted trafficking of cocaine cargoes, as well as its regional and international ramifications"
.
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For several years, the Moroccan police have multiplied the large seizures of cocaine, the South American cartels using the kingdom as a hub to Europe. In October 2017, just over 2.5 tonnes of pure cocaine from Venezuela, with an estimated market value of hundreds of millions of dollars, had been seized in several parts of Morocco, a record crackdown.
In December 2018, Moroccan police discovered more than a ton of cocaine originating in Latin America during an operation near the coastal city of El Jadida (west).
The drugs had been transported from one of the Latin American countries by a commercial vessel before being unloaded off the territorial waters of the kingdom and then transferred on board a fishing vessel to the coasts of El Jadida.
