UK Warns Travelers: Morocco’s Airports Crack Down on Drug Smuggling with Severe Penalties

The United Kingdom has updated its travel alert level for Morocco. "Illicit drugs, including cannabis, are subject to severe penalties. Expect lengthy prison sentences and heavy fines for possession, consumption or trafficking of illicit drugs, including in transit through the airport," warns the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, noting that Moroccan airports have excellent technologies and a robust security system to detect illegal substances. These technologies are also used to screen passengers’ luggage in transit, the ministry adds.

This update comes after Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth in Hertfordshire, was charged with drug trafficking in Germany after being caught smuggling cannabis from Thailand. This British woman was arrested at Munich airport on April 22 as she was trying to retrieve her luggage. She became a suspect in the eyes of the authorities after she changed her flight at the last minute. She was initially supposed to travel to London Heathrow via Singapore.

Arrested and detained, Cameron is now accused of attempted cannabis transit and complicity in international cannabis trafficking. This single mother is due to appear before the Munich District Court on August 6. In the meantime, the investigations are ongoing. "We are supporting a British woman detained in Germany and are in contact with her family and the local authorities," said a spokesperson for the Foreign Office.

Arrests of Britons in possession of drugs are legion. This week, another British woman, Natashia Artug, 35, from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, was arrested in Mauritius along with seven other people. She is accused of trying to smuggle cannabis in her six-year-old son’s suitcase. The other individuals are accused of transporting more than 161 kg of drugs - worth £1.6 million - in their luggage.