Morocco Cracks Down on Nationwide Alcohol Smuggling Ring

The national brigade of the Administration of Customs and Indirect Taxes (ADII) is seeking to dismantle this network whose members "operate on a national scale, and use so-called commercial agents who sell the smuggled products, making their customers believe that they are acquired in the duty-free zones of airports," reports Assabah, specifying that "these counterfeit or smuggled products are sold at less than 40% of their real price."

Some shady nightclub owners are supplied by this network through distributors. The members of the network "transport the proceeds of their trafficking by road transport in containers from the ports of Mauritania, to store them in warehouses in Morocco, before moving on to their distribution, using routes that generally escape the control of the competent services," details the same source, adding that this network then falsifies the tax stamps to be affixed by customs on these products or attaches false labels of well-known alcohol brands.

"These trafficking and smuggling circuits are now being examined by the national brigade of the Customs, which has prerogatives to intervene in coordination with the various security services and the competent authorities," it is indicated.