Last Sunday, the Timlili gendarmerie brigade in the Dakhla province seized four traditional boats operating illegally in the region's waters. The clandestine octopus fishermen, currently in a biological rest period, managed to escape in extremis before the gendarmes arrived. Sophisticated underwater fishing equipment, as well as several motors and inflators, were seized at the same time. The octopus cargo, which exceeded 200 kilos, was also seized. The boats, which carried false registrations—as the octopus mafia in this region uses one licence number for several vessels—were burned by the gendarmerie. The sector's regulations stipulate in this regard that "any artisanal fishing vessel that is unregistered, and does not have a police permit or a registration plate, is considered to have no legal existence and must be seized and destroyed".

In the opinion of several operators in the sector and ecological associations, these clandestine boats, the number of which is estimated at over 4,000, represent a real danger to the region's fishery wealth. The proliferation of these clandestine boats occurs in the face of the indifference of officials who are supposed to organise the sector and combat mafia networks all along the Dakhla coast. Their intervention remains rare and occasional, such as on the eve of the opening of the octopus fishing season which begins on 16 November, when a delegation arrived on Saturday to visit some fishing sites like Tchika. Too formal. To preserve the octopus and protect the wealth of these coasts, it is necessary to install a surveillance system and provide the local gendarmerie and navy with the means to fight against a well-equipped and sometimes protected mafia.