Money Laundering Network Exposed: Moroccan Construction Firms Linked to Billion-Dirham Drug Trafficking Scheme

The investigations carried out by the control services confirmed that the network was exploiting limited liability companies (SARLs) specialized in the trade of construction materials in the north of the kingdom, particularly in the vicinity of Tangier and Tetouan. The ANRF controllers conducted their investigations based on the audit reports prepared by commissions of the central administration.

These reports notably revealed the existence of a network specialized in money laundering through construction material marketing companies (particularly modern plasters), involved in the sale of false invoices, the marketing of counterfeit products, and the laundering of billions of dirhams that would be derived from international drug trafficking.

The analysis of the bank statements of the companies concerned revealed that the amounts of the transfers exceeded their turnover. The investigators also discovered that the managers of these companies held dual Moroccan and Spanish nationality. The ANRF controllers deepened the research in order to verify the suspicions of complicity of certain authority agents with the managers of the companies concerned.

The ANRF control services discovered that the managers of these companies took advantage of their dual nationality to move freely between Morocco and Spain to carry out their import-export operations, which reinforced the suspicions of illegal currency transfer. The controllers asked their Spanish counterparts to provide them with precise information on the financial situation of the suspects abroad.