At a time when the first season of cannabis cultivation for "medical, pharmaceutical and industrial purposes" has started, farmers are calling for the rehabilitation of beldiya, the local cannabis that has been supplanted by imported hybrid plants.
Two years after the Moroccan Parliament voted the law on the lawful uses of cannabis, "for medical, pharmaceutical and industrial purposes", the farmers have received the seeds to start the first growing season.
The High Court of Spain is investigating an international network of cannabis traffickers operating between Morocco and the Netherlands. It is particularly interested in a former employee of Madrid’s Barajas airport.
The Franco-Moroccan Reda Abakrim alias "Turbo", considered a big shot in the export of cannabis from Morocco to France, was acquitted by a Casablanca court in a case of murder committed in the Cité de La Coudraie in Poissy in 2007.
Faouzi Moualek, divisional commissioner and head of the criminal research and analysis service at the Judicial Police Directorate, claims that Morocco, without naming it, has become an important route for cannabis that passes through Algeria or is poured onto Algerian territory.
After appearing before the Bayonne court for cocaine and cannabis trafficking and money laundering, a 33-year-old man was kept in custody by the judges to prevent him from fleeing to Morocco.
While the mastermind of a cannabis trafficking network dismantled between Spain and Nice in February 2022 is in Morocco, his "employees" have received various prison sentences following their trial before the correctional court.
The Bayonne court sentenced a 34-year-old Moroccan man to two years in prison (with continued detention) and one year suspended. He had been arrested on the road to the Col d’Arnéguy while transporting 28 kilos of cannabis resin to the Val-d’Oise.
The Civil Guard arrested on Monday in the port area of Ceuta a Moroccan transporting 79 kilos of hashish on board his French-registered vehicle, destined for Algeciras. He is accused of a presumed crime against public health.
A legal loophole has benefited a Moroccan arrested with ten suitcases of drugs and tried before the Draguignan criminal court. He regained his freedom after a procedural annulment.
On Monday, Morocco issued the first import authorization for cannabis seeds intended for about twenty farmers who wanted to start the legal cultivation of this plant for pharmaceutical and industrial purposes.
The Spanish police, in collaboration with the French national police, dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to drug trafficking from Morocco to France via Seville and Malaga in Spain. In total, seven people were arrested.