The sanitation campaign led by the various components of the Casablanca police prefecture continues to bear fruit. As part of the fight against organised crime, several interventions were carried out, leading to the arrest of several criminals last week.

In the Aïn Sebaâ-Hay Mohammadi district, investigations conducted by the judicial police made it possible to neutralise a Syrian national residing illegally in Morocco and four other people of Moroccan nationality, including two women.

This operation follows numerous complaints filed by the owners of companies and shopping centres, victims of fraud through the issuance of bad cheques, handed over by the aforementioned individuals, who were also authors of falsification of official documents and other serious crimes, including kidnapping and sequestration.

The main fraudster, a Syrian national who presented himself as Moroccan, targeted car rental agencies and high-end furniture stores, among others, by paying his bills with bad cheques.

Once arrested, he did not take long to confess and acknowledge all the acts he was accused of.

The investigation revealed that he possessed a fake Moroccan national identity card and a fake Moroccan driving licence. With these fake papers, he was able to create a company and open a bank account. He was flagged in all police services of the Kingdom and was the subject of 35 national search warrants. He had re-entered Moroccan territory illegally via the Algerian borders in 2003. He was seeing a young woman in the Houara region and they both had an illegitimate daughter. He later left his partner and entrusted the little girl to a man who was supposed to be his friend. He would visit him from time to time.

The in-depth investigation led to the arrest of another person who was in charge of providing him with fake documents and authorisations, in addition to a second accomplice and his partner.

The forger on duty is none other than the friend who was supposed to look after the little girl, but who had other ideas in mind. Indeed, the latter, with the help of his accomplices, kidnapped the main accused's daughter to put pressure on him and thus force him to continue the fraud operations. The investigators went to the latter's two homes where they seized two vehicle registration documents, a chequebook, various falsified stamps, as well as a German-brand car that belonged to the wife of the arrested forger, who was herself arrested.

The car was bought in Nador and its papers were falsified in Khouribga. Another person was imprisoned, suspected of forgery as well as an illegal relationship.

All these fraudsters were presented to the justice system for kidnapping, sequestration, fraud, forgery and use of forged documents, as well as for issuing bad cheques and breach of trust.