ISIS-Linked Cell in Morocco Sentenced for Targeting Drug Lords and Terror Plot

The 20 members of a terrorist cell in the city of the strait have just been sentenced by the criminal chamber in charge of terrorism cases near the Court of Appeal of Rabat to prison terms ranging from 2 to 14 years.

The latter, who had pledged allegiance to Daesh, were accused of setting up a terrorist cell and several other charges, including weapons possession, violence, drug trafficking and theft.

According to Al Akhbar, the members of this cell were attacking (by force) drug barons, taking away their drug shipments, alcohol and other items... Then they would demand money from these same barons to return them. Thus, the media gives the example of 2.5 tons of cannabis that they would have taken from a drug baron under the threat of a knife, before offering them back to him for the price of 900,000 dirhams.

One might wonder how this type of business came to the attention of the security services, since both the thieves and the stolen are criminals, the stolen especially not being able to file a complaint against the aggressors. Al Akhbar explains in this sense that it was the defenestration of an individual from the 7th floor of a building in the center of Tangier that allowed the opening of the investigation. This investigation into this defenestration having revealed that this individual was trying to flee the terrorists.