The police services of Greater Casablanca are tightening the noose on drug traffickers. The latest crackdown took place in Mohammedia. The elements of the city's Judicial Police seized 38 kg of "chira" (cannabis resin) there. According to police sources, this operation led to the arrest of four people, including two women. Mustapha Sabri, head of the Mohammedia PJ service, specified that this seizure is the result of meticulous investigations. After doubting the behaviour of certain people, the police elements monitored them discreetly. They started by arresting the driver of a car driving without a licence. Searching the vehicle led the police to the seizure of "chira". Then, searching the targeted apartment led to the discovery of 38 kg of "chira" and 54 kg of "maâjoune", as well as utensils used for the preparation of this substance by two women from the gang in question. In collaboration with the investigators of the Narcotics Brigade, the elements of the Mohammedia PJ thus nabbed another accomplice in a chalet located on the coast. The arrested persons will be brought to justice once the investigation is completed.

Let us recall that the elements of the Judicial Police in Mohammedia recently arrested a drug trafficker who was smuggling narcotics into the city's civil prison. Aged 29, this dealer had been convicted eleven times between 2000 and 2011 for the same motive. To accomplish "his mission", he called on the help of an accomplice who threw drugs over the prison watchtowers, like a tennis ball, in exchange for 200 dirhams per "attempt". The ball was immediately intercepted by the brother of the trafficker in question. Surveillance cameras unmasked this procedure, particularly after the discovery of a quantity of "chira" hooked onto the prison's barbed wire. The dealer in question confessed that he was moving two kilograms of drugs per week using this method. Cannabis resin trafficking is also wreaking havoc in Casablanca. The Judicial Police of the Ben M'sick district recently seized 18 kilograms of this drug. After more than two months of surveillance, the police located the places where the drug supplier was storing his merchandise. It was a home and a traditional sewing shop. The elements of the Judicial Police of the Bernoussi district had also neutralised two alleged traffickers arrested with 24 kg of "chira" in their possession.

In the context of the fight against drug trafficking on an international scale, the police services seized 10.343 tonnes of "chira", 863 kg of cocaine, 3.277 kg of heroin and 26,326 psychotropic tablets at the port and airport. Mohammed V airport recorded one of the most important drug seizures: 90 capsules of cocaine hidden in the stomach of a national from Latin America.

Young people represent the perfect target for drug dealers. Unfortunately, there are not enough specialised centres to help the victims of these traffickers. In addition to the National Centre of the Arrazi Psychiatric University Hospital in Salé, the Casablanca Addiction Centre is the only other establishment available in Morocco that offers specific medical treatment to drug addicts. The two essential dependencies identified in the city are poly-addiction (addiction to several drugs) and addiction to cannabis and "mâajoune". Next comes addiction to "karkoubi", medication, cocaine, heroin and crack. In order to face this situation, the police and civil society organised, this year, awareness campaigns on the dangers of drug consumption in schools, targeting more than 40,000 students.