Gold Smuggling Ring Uncovered in Morocco, Linked to Money Laundering Scheme

During his interrogation, the defendant confessed to the investigators that the criminal network in question carries out its activities by hiding behind agricultural companies. Several jewelers suspected of having been involved in gold and currency smuggling will be arrested by the police, reports the daily Assabah.

To exculpate his client, the lawyer of the first jeweler told the investigators that his client had been the victim of a trap set up by his colleagues. For him, the file must be transmitted to the judicial police since "this criminal gang is active in several cities and even has branches abroad".

Their modus operandi consists of smuggling large quantities of gold from Turkey to sell them to jewelers in Casablanca and other cities. The latter give them in return checks used in the agricultural sector. An activity that would have generated several tens of millions of dirhams which they then transferred abroad.

Despite the efforts of his lawyer, the jeweler arrested for issuing bad checks was placed in pre-trial detention in the Oukacha prison, on the decision of the public prosecutor at the Casablanca correctional court.