With the help of the US, Morocco foils attempt to smuggle nearly 216 kg of cocaine

The National Office for the Fight against Drug Trafficking under the National Brigade of the Judicial Police (BNPJ) thwarted, on Monday, an international hard drug trafficking operation via the Tanger-Med port, seizing a total of 215.82 kg of cocaine.

This security operation was carried out in coordination with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as part of operational cooperation with US authorities to combat international cocaine trafficking and neutralize the dangers and threats posed by cross-border organized crime networks, the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN) said in a statement.

The cocaine shipment was seized in a container aboard a European-flagged transport vessel bound for the Dutch port of Rotterdam from a Brazilian port, the DGSN said.

Search operations carried out on board the container led to the seizure of five electronic GPS geolocation chips linked to the bags of cocaine, the same source added, saying that the container's seals do not match the documents and papers of the goods it contained.

The investigation and inquiries in this case have been entrusted to the BNPJ's National Office for the Fight against Drug Trafficking under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor's office, in order to identify all the individuals linked to the criminal network involved in this cocaine trafficking attempt and to determine its regional and international ramifications, in coordination with the Interpol office in Rabat, said the DGSN.

The police dog brigade is continuing to search the rest of the container, while subjecting it to a thorough examination using detection equipment to verify the possible presence of other illicit substances inside its structures, the same source concluded.