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Morocco Arrests 300 in Crackdown on Fake COVID-19 Documents and Test Kit Trafficking
Thursday 16 September 2021, by
As of September 10, 300 people were arrested in flagrante delicto for forgery and use of forgery as part of the operations to combat the falsification of health documents, launched since the declaration of the state of health emergency.
The operations carried out by the DGSN focused on the fight against fake PCR tests, fake vaccination passes and the trafficking of Covid-19 rapid test kits.
In total, 144 cases were processed during checks at border posts (air and sea) during transit operations to and from Morocco, leading to the arrest of 300 people.
Among them, eleven were arrested for the sale of smuggled pharmaceutical products (mainly screening tests).
Regarding the distribution of cases by city, it should be noted that the city of Agadir is in the lead with 68 cases, followed by Oujda (34 cases), Marrakech (12), Casablanca (10), and one case each in the cities of Rabat, Kénitra, Tangier, Tétouan, Al Hoceima, Fez, Béni Mellal, Ouarzazate and Laâyoune.
For its part, the public prosecutor’s office had sent a circular on August 27 to the attorney generals and public prosecutors on this subject. Thus, the presidency of the public prosecutor’s office is urging the judicial authorities to take vigorous action against the fraud of health documents, given the frequent use of these practices. The judicial police must use all appropriate means to detect cases of fraud, to open investigations accordingly and to be firm against the persons presumed to be involved in these cases.