Cocaine Surge Grips Morocco’s Elite: Luxury Parties and Nightclubs Fuel Alarming Trend

There is still a long way to go in the fight against drug trafficking. As proof, the consumption of cocaine is now experiencing an alarming surge within the affluent circles. "Nightclubs, luxury residences and high-end apartments have reportedly become the scene of a thriving trade, orchestrated by increasingly ingenious drug dealer networks to circumvent police surveillance," reports Assabah. It is also becoming more frequent to see plates overflowing with white powder during private parties, organized by a wealthy youth.

The consumers are also very selective: they prefer high-quality cocaine to less refined substances. The cities that would be particularly affected by this hard drug trafficking are Marrakech, Tangier, Casablanca and Agadir. "High-quality" products would be circulating in these sectors. "Nightclubs, which have become real refuges for this illicit trade, sometimes see their managers willingly turn a blind eye, or even actively participate in the trafficking," says the same source, adding that some "would have even deactivated the toilet locks to allow drug addicts to indulge in it discreetly."

Faced with the scale of the phenomenon, the police and gendarmerie services have intervened. Interventions during which they were able to make several arrests, both of dealers and consumers, but also significant seizures. In Marrakech, the manager of a nightclub and the brother of the owner were caught in the act of consumption. Five doses of cocaine were seized and ten complicit intermediaries were arrested. At the same time, the strengthened controls at border posts and at Mohammed V airport have borne fruit: seizures have more than doubled in a year, from 922 to 2,189 kilograms of cocaine.