Police seize over 400 kg of cocaine at an apartment near Rabat

The judicial police of Temara and Casablanca seized, on Tuesday, some 476 kilograms of cocaine at an apartment in Harhoura, near Rabat.

The national police (DGSN) said, Wednesday in a statement, that the first elements of the investigation led to the arrest of a man and a woman in Casablanca aged 40 and 38 years, and then to the location of the apartment that was arranged to accommodate the illicit substance.

The searches carried out inside this apartment also led to the seizure of other equipment and furniture, including a hunting rifle and 19 cartridges (22-mm calibre), sums of money in national and foreign currency, a tear gas canister, 12 luxury watches, a digital camera, 3 cheque books and a bill of exchange containing an amount of MAD 1,20,000, as well as travel and identity documents and a 4x4 car, the statement noted.

Chemical expertise, undertaken by the forensic laboratory in Casablanca on different samples of the cocaine seized, showed that its concentration level ranges from 61% to 64%, while the investigation concluded that the drug was smuggled in by sea coming from a Latin American country, the DGSN explained.

The cocaine was unloaded off the Moroccan coast and subsequently transported on board a pleasure boat before being stored in the said apartment, added the same source.

The national judicial police Brigade was charged with investigating the case under the supervision of the competent prosecutor's office, while the suspects were held into police custody, the statement said, adding that research and investigations continue to arrest the main suspects involved in the case who have been fully identified.