Hespress has learned from well-informed sources that the services of the National Customs Brigade, affiliated with the General Administration of Customs and Indirect Taxes, have launched in-depth investigations into the activity of an international network for trafficking smuggled spare parts, which uses the city of Fez as its centre, and promotes goods that have been introduced into Morocco illegally, away from the umbrella of customs and security control, in the cities of Meknes, Kenitra, Casablanca, El Jadida, Settat and Marrakech, explaining that the elements of the National Brigade coordinated their ongoing investigations with the services of the General Directorate of National Security, in order to identify the members of the network and the paths of their activity, especially since a number of them have criminal records.
The same sources stated that the investigations underway by customs inspectors have identified smuggling routes for car spare parts from Europe, specifically Germany and Spain, towards Morocco, confirming that the members of the network inside and outside the Kingdom, especially those in Fez, have extensive knowledge of how to dispose of smuggled products at high speed after introducing them into the Kingdom outside customs channels, explaining that the scrutiny of the validity of reports and intelligence led to the network members resorting to using forged invoices and "vouchers" in an attempt to integrate illegal parts into legal trade classified as scrap, which recorded a rise in used spare parts to record levels since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic.
The same sources confirmed that customs inspectors have begun to identify storage points belonging to the network in the suburbs of the city of Fez, and direct distribution points in Kenitra and Casablanca, stressing that the smuggled spare parts concerned cars of high-end brands, distributed between mechanical parts and accessories, explaining that the investigations extended to the relationships of members of the network with elected officials and municipal councillors who facilitated the process of storing smuggled goods in warehouses belonging to agricultural farms and "hangars" in rural areas, away from the eyes of the regional customs control teams, which were mobilised by the central services with new data and information.
The rise in the prices of car spare parts and components has boosted smuggling operations, as the high prices did not distinguish between used and new ones, after the selling prices of parts for the most popular models in Morocco developed by a rate ranging between 30 percent and 50 percent among distributors, according to their degrees, while these prices jumped to higher levels for parts for Asian cars, which are known for a quasi-monopoly by specific distributors, especially in Casablanca where the headquarters of the largest car distribution companies in the Kingdom are located.
Hespress sources revealed the escalating pace of smuggling used spare parts and scrap from abroad, after raising the value of customs duties on these products, which opened the way for international smuggling networks to consolidate their position in the market, which negatively affected local manufacturing units, confirming that despite the significant increase in production capacities in recent years, most of the production of these units was directed to factories distributed between Tangier and Kenitra, and export, so that the local market remains a fertile space for the circulation of counterfeit parts.
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