Reuters
The Algerian News Agency dealt extensively with the drug file, following the Algerian forces’ publication of the army’s operational proceeds in combating smuggling and organized crime.
The agency re-published a United Nations report issued in August 2020, stating that “the regular and stable production and flow of cannabis and hashish from Morocco towards neighboring countries and the Sahel contributes to financing active armed groups and threatens to destabilize the region due to the intertwining between drug trafficking gangs and terrorist groups operating in The region, where terrorist groups provide security cover to smugglers in exchange for a share of drug smuggling revenues.
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And a report by the European Observatory of Drugs and Addiction in June 2020 revealed that “Morocco is the first supplier to Europe of cannabis and hashish with about 72 percent of all drugs seized through Spain only,” according to the official news agency.
The agency indicated that UN experts had previously warned in a statement issued in September 2020 that “the production and flow of cannabis and hashish in an orderly and stable manner from Morocco to Mali and through it to a number of countries in the Sahel region contributes to financing active armed groups and threatens the stability of the region.”
In his report to the President of the UN Security Council, the coordinator of the Group of Experts on the State of Mali Albert Baroumé stated that “the production of cannabis or hashish is still the most regular and stable flow of drugs from Morocco through Mauritania and Mali via Niger to Libya,” noting that “the involvement of groups “Armed forces in organized crime are on the rise, mainly with regard to the transfer of hashish, leading to clashes that have not subsided along the Moroccan border.”
According to the agency, in July 2020 the report documented the outbreak of confrontations regarding a drug convoy crossing into Niger, as the team of experts pointed out that “these violent confrontations may amount to a violation by some armed groups of the ceasefire agreement, which prompted the interests involved in combating organized crime jointly to Make greater efforts to eliminate drug transfers. “
The UN experts cited in their report the last trial that took place as part of the anti-drug efforts in April 2020, when the Supreme Court in Niamey issued verdicts on individuals arrested for their involvement in international drug trafficking.
The events go back to April 2018, after a shipment of 10 tons of hashish was transported from Morocco to Niger via refrigerated trucks to Mauritania and Mali Burkina Faso, and the bulk of it was transported 7 tons from Niamey to Libya.
After two months of the arrests, Niger authorities confiscated more than two tons, after which the Moroccan named Abdelali Boutokla was sentenced to three years in prison, while his partner, Ali Bouleha, escaped from detention and returned to Morocco.
Source: APS
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