Morocco Arrests 220 in Crackdown on Fake COVID-19 Documents

The searches carried out at the suspects’ homes made it possible to seize 425 fake Covid-19 test certificates, 23 falsified health passes, as well as sums of money in dirhams and foreign currency, reports Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, specifying that in total, 220 individuals were arrested as part of 111 cases. 182 of them were during border control procedures and health security devices at ports or airports, as they were about to leave Morocco or enter it. The others were arrested following investigations conducted by the various police services in the country.

It is [Agadir’s Al Massira airport] that is in first place with 65 people taken into custody. Then come [Nador’s Al Aroui airport] (51), Marrakech Menara airport (26), the port of Nador (16), [Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport] (11) and Laâyoune airport, with 2 arrests. All the accused have been subjected to judicial investigations, in order to arrest all the people involved in these acts.

For better securing of PCR tests, [the Ministry of Health] has introduced other measures in the control of in vitro diagnostic reagents, unannounced visits to laboratories and imposed the exclusive use, by these laboratories, of the ministry’s "E-Labs" platform, for the centralization and communication of the results of the tests carried out, concludes the daily.