
Moroccan Driver Caught Smuggling $7,000 Worth of Hashish at Spanish Port
The Spanish Civil Guard arrested on Friday a Moroccan at the port of Algeciras, in possession of four kilos of hashish hidden in the cabin of his vehicle.

The Spanish Civil Guard arrested on Friday a Moroccan at the port of Algeciras, in possession of four kilos of hashish hidden in the cabin of his vehicle.

Despite the large Muslim community settled in Algeciras, estimated at more than 12,000 people, the city does not have a Muslim cemetery. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the authorities have had to find a burial place outside the city for at least thirty people.

The port of Tanger Med, in northern Morocco, is positioning itself as the major competitor to the port of Algeciras in Spain. In 2020, container traffic reached 5.7 million TEUs for the port of Tanger Med, compared to a forecast of 5.2 million for the port of Algeciras.

A few days before the new year, the forecasts for container traffic at the Algeciras level show a result similar to that of 2019. Thus, regarding container traffic, the battle is set to be tough between the two mega-ports of the strait, namely TangerMed and Algeciras.

Spain has announced that it has recently organized a new repatriation operation for the benefit of 545 Spanish nationals and Moroccan residents on board a ferry from the port of Tanger Med to Algeciras. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, this is the 44th time that Spain has organized this type of operation.

The project of a free zone in Algeciras , the largest Spanish port, will take shape within the tax enclosure of the Bay located in the municipality of "Los Barrios". It is integrated within the framework of the Cádiz Free Zone, named after the southernmost province of Spain.

The port of Algeciras , a competitor of Tanger Med, will commission a new ro-ro terminal in early 2021.

The port of Algeciras, the main Spanish port in terms of passenger numbers, has lost the majority of its traffic this year. The reason is the absence of Moroccans living abroad (MREs) .

Two Spanish police officers were seriously injured on Saturday morning during the arrest of drug traffickers in Algeciras.

The absence of port traffic in Algeciras, mainly due to the non-activation of the Marhaba operation dedicated to Moroccans residing abroad (MREs), has caused activity to drop by nearly 90%.

Two police officers and three employees of the FRS transport company have been indicted for complicity in the export of cannabis by an organized gang. The investigation is being conducted by the narcotics brigade in Tanger .

Spain is preparing to repatriate again its nationals stranded in Morocco. Two new operations are planned by sea from the port of Tanger-Med to the port of Algeciras, on August 13 and 14.