Moroccan Gendarmerie Officers Face Trial for Money Laundering Scheme

The appearance of the 24 gendarmes, including five colonels previously convicted on appeal to prison sentences ranging from two to six years, totaling about 76 years in prison instead of the 61 years they had received in 2019, took place last week. In the absence of half of the accused, the president of the Court of First Instance in Rabat had to postpone the first hearing to the first week of December, reports the Arabic-language daily Al Akhbar.

On the orders of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of First Instance in Rabat, elements of the judicial brigade of the Royal Gendarmerie, as well as the National Brigade of the Judicial Police (BNPJ), had opened a thorough investigation into money laundering involving senior police and royal gendarmerie officials prosecuted for their involvement in a vast international trafficking case.

The Financial Crimes Chamber of the Rabat Court of Appeal had sentenced, last March, to six years instead of five (first instance) a colonel who headed the regional command of the city of Tangier and sentenced one of his colleagues in the first instance to two years in prison. The sentence of another colonel was increased from three to four years. Senior officials who had been in charge of the regional (land and sea) commands of the cities of Agadir, Larache, Essaouira, Rabat, Settat and Tangier also saw their sentences increased.