Moroccan Police Bust 25-Member Gang Targeting Businessmen in Euro Scam

This criminal gang targets "businessmen and senior officials from Tangier, Casablanca, Rabat, Salé, Meknes, Fez, Kenitra and other regions" that it defrauds. Their modus operandi is simple. They inform their victims that "shepherds [had] found by chance, near the beaches of Moulay Bousselham, in the province of Kenitra, a large quantity of foreign currency, crates full of euros, which they wanted to resell." The latter biting the bait, agree to meet the members of the network who hand them a few bills of the alleged "treasure" so that they can verify their authenticity at the nearest exchange office, reports Assabah.

"The members of this criminal gang then moved on to the negotiation stage of the price of all the alleged bills, and a subsequent meeting was set in a forest near the Dar Belamri commune, between Tifelt and Sidi Yahya El Gharb, to conclude this transaction," continues the daily, explaining that as soon as the victims found themselves on the spot, "the members of the gang, hooded, threatened them with knives, assaulted them, detained them, not without extracting all the money they had brought, before abandoning them in a deserted area, between Tifelt and Sidi Yahya El Gharb."