Salafist Preacher’s Son Admits Cocaine Addiction in Marrakech Drug Trial

The six people accused of supplying cocaine and counterfeit alcohol to nightclubs in the ochre city appeared last Tuesday. At the bar, S.M., 36, son of the Salafist sheikh Maghraoui confessed. He admitted that he was addicted to hard drug use. He stated that the three grams of cocaine found in his possession during his arrest on September 18 were for his personal consumption. According to him, one of the five other defendants had sold him this amount of drugs for 2,000 dirhams.

However, he flatly rejected the accusations of usurpation of the title of judge and attempted fraud. According to the prosecution, he was posing as a judge in order to benefit from preferential treatment from his supplier. He explained that he had bought the three grams of cocaine for 2,000 DH while the price of a gram does not exceed 600 dirhams on the local market. Also, he denied having intervened in this false capacity in any case. Nevertheless, he acknowledges having sent an SMS to Haj Hicham, one of his suppliers who had constantly asked him to intervene in favor of one of his trafficker friends, to confirm the receipt of the file.

During the hearing, Haji Hicham, whose real name is A. H. (35 years old), claimed that he sometimes sold three or four doses of cocaine to the son of the Salafist preacher for his personal consumption. But this time he denied that his buyer had presented himself to him as a judge. According to him, it was rather a certain M.S. who had presented himself to him in this capacity during a meeting between them in Tangier.

The defense lawyers meanwhile asked the judge for provisional release for the six defendants. This request was simply rejected. The court continues to examine this case on Wednesday, December 16, 2020.