Marrakech Real Estate Probe: Police Investigate Massive Money Laundering Scheme

The acquisition of many agricultural lands, some of which have areas exceeding several hundred hectares on the outskirts of Marrakech, has aroused the suspicions of the elements of the financial brigade of the regional security of the ochre city, reports Al Massae. The buyers paid the former owners in cash. Astronomical sums that led the police to investigate the origin of the money.

Another fact: the buyers of these lands and other farms are people with average or even very low incomes. In other words, they are intermediaries between drug traffickers, individuals involved in ongoing legal proceedings or wanted by the police and the former owners.

Since then, the elements of the financial brigade of the regional security of Marrakech have been conducting investigations to determine the exact origin of these investments amounting to several hundred million dirhams. According to the first elements of the preliminary investigation, large sums of money have been released to equip these lands with modern agricultural machinery.

In a statement to the newspaper Al Massae, a source indicated that with the drastic measures taken by the Moroccan authorities in their fight against money laundering, investments in agricultural land, which have become a refuge for dirty money, have experienced an unprecedented boom in recent years.