Former Customs Officer Implicated in $1.7 Million Smuggling Ring at Tangier Port

It all started with the surveillance and tracking of a truck carrying several tons of firecrackers, 500 Iphones, the latest generation of smartphones, clothes and various brands of perfumes, as well as silver ingots and laughing gas capsules, more commonly known as poppers. On Friday, an operation mobilized the security forces around 1 a.m., then other services. They managed to intercept and seize these shipments worth an estimated 17 million dirhams.

The interrogation of the truck driver reveals that this new operation was commissioned by a network "which had already been unmasked last August by the Customs services, with a similar cargo," reports the Arabic daily Assabah. For the investigators, there is no doubt that "the two operations are the work of the same network." They rely on "a body of evidence," in particular "the similarity of the cargo content."

The smugglers are suspected of having "called on the services of a former customs officer" to carry out their "activity." The latter "would benefit from the protection of an influential personality in the north" of the kingdom.