Major French Drug Trafficker ’Turbo’ Arrested in Morocco, Highlighting International Cooperation

"I welcome the arrest in Casablanca of an international drug trafficker. He was one of our priority targets. Fine example of the very good cooperation between France and Morocco," the French Minister of the Interior tweeted.

Nicknamed Turbo because of his exploits in cannabis trafficking via "go-fast", he managed to shake off the law enforcement officers chasing him. Monitored by investigators from the Office for the Fight against Drug Trafficking (OFAST) for 13 years, he was located in Dubai. Once there, the OFAST elements fail to arrest him. Reda Abakrim, informed of their presence, slips through their fingers again and boards in time for Morocco.

Alerted by their French colleagues, the Moroccan police services at Casablanca airport arrested him upon his arrival on December 22.

At 38, he is one of the biggest cannabis traffickers in the Paris region and was convicted, in absentia, last June to 21 years in criminal detention by the Versailles Assize Court, near Paris, for having executed one of the members of his network in 2007. Already incarcerated for using a false passport in France, only Morocco could decide on his extradition to France to be tried there, recalls Le Parisien.