2008 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report for Morocco

Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Washington, DC
February 27, 2009

 

 
I. Summary

The Government of Morocco (GOM) has achieved significant reductions in its cannabis and cannabis resin production in recent years. Advances in Morocco’s counternarcotics efforts are a result of the GOM’s comprehensive counternarcotics strategy, which emphasizes combining conventional law enforcement, crop eradication, international cooperation, and demand reduction efforts with economic development to erode the “cannabis growing culture” that exists in northern Morocco. The vast majority of cannabis produced in Morocco is consumed in Europe and has little, if any, impact on the U.S. market for illegal drugs. Morocco is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention.

II. Status of Country

Morocco is one of the world’s largest cannabis resin (hashish) producers and has consistently ranked among the world’s largest producers of cannabis, but its importance as a main source country for cannabis resin is declining. The 2008 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report states that fewer countries around the world are citing Morocco as the “source” country or “origin” of the cannabis resin found in their markets. The percentage of countries citing Morocco as the origin of hashish found in their markets has dropped from 31 percent in 2003 to 18 percent in 2006. This statistic appears to indicate some success of the GOM’s counter drug efforts as well as increased cannabis resin production in Afghanistan.

Cannabis remains primarily a European export for Moroccan growers, with the vast majority of the product typically processed into cannabis resin or oil and exported predominately to Europe. Only very small amounts of cannabis and narcotics being produced in or transiting through Morocco reach the United States.

Cannabis cultivation is centered in the northern tip of the country, between the Rif Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea, and large segments of the population of that area participate in the cultivation. Approximately 760,000 Moroccans living in roughly 60 percent of villages in that area are involved in cannabis cultivation, according to the GOM.

The center of cannabis production in Morocco appears to have shifted from Chefchaouen to al-Hoceima due to GOM eradication efforts. Nearly 50 percent of cannabis cultivation occurs in al-Hoceima, with the surrounding provinces of Taounate, Tetouan and Chefchaouen largely making up the rest of production. According to the GOM, the province of Larache has become a less important area for cannabis cultivation.

Morocco is also combating the growth in trafficking and consumption of “harder drugs,” particularly cocaine. According to the GOM, South American drug smugglers are transporting increased amounts of cocaine through Morocco and onward to Europe.

Heroin and psychotropic drugs (methamphetamine, Ecstasy, etc.) are also making inroads into the country but to a lesser extent than cocaine. Morocco has only a relatively modest licit requirement for dual-use meth or Ecstasy precursor chemicals (1025 kg of pseudoephedrine), and the country neither serves as a known source nor transit point for diverted meth precursors.

III. Country Actions against Drugs in 2008
Policy Initiatives. Morocco’s national strategy to combat drugs rests on the four pillars of: (1) interdiction, (2) eradication, (3) international cooperation, and (4) demand reduction. Morocco’s strongest actions have been in the areas of interdiction and eradication. GOM officials seek to build upon their already strong existing relationships with international organizations such as the UNODC, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), and INTERPOL. Demand reduction efforts; however, have been weak, as GOM officials still consider this to be mainly a European issue.

Morocco’s national drug strategy is augmented by an emphasis on a broader economic development approach and crop substitution. Moroccan officials, however, readily admit that alternatives are often a “hard sell” to farmers who can earn 18 times the earnings of a substitute crop such as barley by continuing to grow cannabis.

Moroccan authorities reported that they hope to complete another detailed drug study in cooperation with UNODC as well as update their national drug strategy in 2009. Moroccan Ministry of Interior (MOI) has the goal to reduce cannabis cultivation to 12,000 ha by the year 2012. If this goal is accomplished, it will mean that Morocco will have reduced cannabis cultivation by 91% since it first started serious eradication efforts in 2003.

Law Enforcement Efforts. The following table is a summary of Morocco’s drug seizure efforts since 2004. The decrease in cannabis and hashish seizures between 2007 and 2008 may partly be the result of successful GOM eradication efforts and droughts reducing the supply cannabis and hashish on the local market.

 
 Cannabis Hashish  Cocaine Heroin Psychotropic Drugs    
2004 318 MT 86 MT 4 kg 1001 grams 168,257 units     
2005 116 MT 96 MT 8 kg 5,335 grams 94,900 units     
2006 60 MT 89MT 57 kg 714 grams 55,881 units     
2007 209 MT 118 MT 248 kg 1,906 grams 55,243 units     
2008 (January-September) 222 MT 114 MT 34 kg 6,325 grams 48,293 units

   
The GOM has deployed 11,000 personnel into the Rif mountains and throughout the northern coastal areas to interdict drug shipments, maintain counternarcotics checkpoints, and staff observation posts along the coast. The Moroccan Navy carries out routine sea patrols. GOM forces are now using helicopters, planes, speed boats, mobile x-ray scanners, ultrasound equipment, and satellites in their drug fight. The mobile x-ray scanner has proven to be particularly effective, allowing GOM officials to seize a record quantity of 11 metric tons (MT) of cannabis resin in Tangier in December 2006. The Moroccan Navy used a similar scanner to seize 3 MT of cannabis resin in April 2008 alone. The GOM recently acquired another mobile x-ray scanner for use in the port city of Nador.

In 2008, Moroccan law enforcement arrested 28,896 individuals in connection with drug related offenses. Approximately 1,200 of these individuals were arrested for international drug trafficking of which 600 were foreigners, including 148 Spanish, 122 French, 21 Italians, 20 Dutch, and 12 Belgians. Arrests of traffickers at the seaports, and of arriving cocaine “mules” from Sub-Saharan Africa at the Casablanca airport are frequently in the news. In 2007, 93 kg of the total 248 kg of cocaine seized by the GOM was seized at the Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca; the majority of the 84 smugglers were West Africans in transit to Europe. Detection training and the use of ultrasound equipment were critical to the success of these seizures. As authorities become more vigilant, GOM officials opine that cocaine smugglers are likely to seek access to Europe through much harder to detect land routes and other methods.
Moroccan law provides a maximum allowable prison sentence for drug offenses of 30 years, as well as fines for illegal drug violations ranging from $20,000-$80,000. Ten to 15 years imprisonment remains the typical sentence for major drug traffickers convicted in Morocco.

Of special note, an American citizen was arrested on May 7, 2008 by Moroccan officials for an alleged drug shipment. On June 15, 2008, he was sentenced to seven years in prison, fined $1,200, and had his aircraft confiscated. The court also sentenced two Moroccan accomplices to prison terms of six and four years respectively, and acquitted two others.

Corruption. As a matter of government policy, the GOM does not encourage or facilitate illicit production or distribution of narcotic or psychotropic drugs or other controlled substances, or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions. These actions are illegal and the government tries to enforce these laws to the best of its ability. Despite GOM actions to combat the illicit drug trafficking industry, narcotics-related corruption among governmental, judicial, military and law enforcement officials appears to continue.

In August 2006, authorities arrested senior government official Abdelaziz Izzou (the head of security at Morocco's royal palaces) for his cooperation with a major drug baron when he was head of the Tangier judicial police from 1996 to 2003. After a lengthy trial, Izzou received an 18 month prison sentence and had 700,000 MAD (approximately $100,000) seized by the state in March 2008.

In December 2007, notorious drug baron Mohamed Taieb Ahmed (AKA “El Nene”) escaped from prison in Kenitra with the assistance of local prison guards. Authorities re-captured “El Nene” in Spain in April 2008. For the role they played in the escape, Moroccan courts sentenced six Kenitra prison guards to prison terms ranging between two suspended months and four years on charges of forgery, corruption, and assisting a prisoner in escaping from custody. The GOM changed the management of its prison system and is also in the process of reinforcing prison security in response to this and other prison escapes in early 2008.

In January 2008, Moroccan authorities prosecuted three members of the gendarmerie (rural police) on corruption charges following a complaint made by an airline passenger traveling through the Agadir-Al Massira Airport. Moroccan police arrested the son of former Mauritanian president Khouna Ould Haidalla in July 2008 for attempting to smuggle 18 kg of cocaine. In October 2008, he was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.

During a speech in August 2008, King Mohammed VI called on the government to work actively to launch the Central Authority for the Prevention of Corruption. By the end of the year, the chairman and 40 members of the Authority had been named, and it was included in the annual budget. While the body will have only policy rather than enforcement responsibilities, the new chairman said he would forward to judicial authorities reports of corruption the Authority uncovered.

Agreements and Treaties. Morocco is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1961 UN Single Convention as amended by the 1972 Protocol. Morocco is also a party to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, but has not signed any of its protocols. Morocco and the United States cooperate in law enforcement matters under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). Morocco is a party to the UN Convention against Corruption. Morocco has several cooperative agreements to fight against drugs with European countries such as Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy, and it seeks to work closely with other Arab and African countries.

Cultivation/Production/Eradication. Morocco succeeded in decreasing the land dedicated to cannabis cultivation by 55% from 134,000 hectares in 2003 to 60,000 hectares in 2008, due in part to an aggressive eradication campaign, carried out mainly by Gendarme and local authorities, according to GOM officials. Plans call for cannabis cultivation areas to decrease below 50,000 hectares in 2009. Cannabis resin production dropped 71% from 3,070 MT to 877 MT between 2003 and 2005. Morocco used the following methods to eradicate illicit crops: (1) crop-dusting via airplane, (2) mechanical and manual destruction of crops and (3) burning.

GOM officials report that during the first phase of the 2008 eradication campaign, they were able to eradicate a total of 4,376 ha of cannabis in the northern provinces. This includes 2,695 ha in Taounate, 985 ha in Chefchaouen, 130 ha in Tetouan and 565 ha in Larache.

In 2004, Morocco launched an awareness campaign for cannabis growers alerting them to the environmental dangers of cannabis cultivation to include soil exhaustion, excessive fertilizer concentrations, and deforestation and informing them of alternatives to use the land more productively. The GOM selected the northern province of Taounate in 2006 as the site for the construction of the National Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants to study the viability of various crop substitutions. Saffron cultivation and rose petal extraction are two examples of possible future economic substitutes for cannabis cultivation in the region. GOM officials report that since the 2004 awareness campaign started, there has been a 50% decrease in cannabis production in the Province of Taounate.

Drug Flow/Transit. Given its proximity to Morocco, Spain is a key transfer point for Europe-bound Moroccan cannabis resin where it can normally be transshipped to most other Western European destinations. France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy are also major European destinations for cannabis trafficked from Morocco. Notwithstanding the changes reported above in cultivation and production, there is no confirmation of a significant diminution of cannabis products reaching these major European markets.

Most large shipments of illicit cannabis bound for Spain travel via speedboats, which can make the roundtrip to Spain in one hour or less, although fishing boats, yachts, and other vessels are also used. Smugglers also continue to transport cannabis via truck and car through the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, known to have lower inspection standards than the rest of the European Union, and the Moroccan port of Tangier, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar by ferry. Spain’s deployment of a network of fixed and modular radar, infrared, and video sensors around the Strait of Gibraltar, starting in 1999 and known as the Integrated System of External Vigilance (SIVE), has forced Moroccan smugglers to take longer and more vulnerable routes.

Latin American drug organizations have begun in recent years to exploit Morocco’s well-established cannabis routes to smuggle cocaine and perhaps also heroin into Europe. Although the main African redistribution centers for cocaine from Latin America remain Sub-Saharan, including Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria, Morocco is increasingly being used as a transit country in a trend that can be expected to continue. In October 2008, the Colombian National Police seized a shipping container destined for Morocco with a declared cargo of aluminum roofing sheets but also containing 324 grams of cocaine.

Trans-national drug trafficking networks are a growing problem for Morocco. Although French and Spanish networks are more prevalent, Romanian drug networks appeared in Morocco for the first time in 2007 when 34 Romanian traffickers were arrested. There are initial indications of a Russian organized crime presence in Morocco, but no evidence thus far that it is engaged in narco-trafficking.

Domestic Programs/Demand Reduction. The GOM is concerned about signs of an increase in domestic cocaine and heroin use, but does not aggressively promote reduction in domestic demand for these drugs or for cannabis. Some media estimates suggest that as many as ten percent of adults regularly use cannabis, but the GOM does not currently have an effective system in place to measure and evaluate the situation. Morocco has established a program to train the staffs of psychiatric hospitals in the treatment of drug addiction. In partnership with UNODC, the Ministry of Health is exploring the relationship between drug use and HIV/AIDS infection in Morocco. Moroccan civil society and some schools are active in promoting counternarcotics use campaigns.

IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs

Bilateral Cooperation. The USG is working to enhance Morocco’s counternarcotics capability through training in law enforcement techniques, and to promote the GOM’s adherence to its obligations under relevant bilateral and international narcotics control agreements. U.S.-supported efforts to strengthen anti-money laundering laws and efforts against terrorist financing may also contribute to the GOM’s ability to monitor the flow of money from the cannabis trade.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which covers Morocco from its Paris office, continued its bilateral exchange of information with the Moroccans in support of several ongoing drug investigations in 2008. The DEA invited the Director of Morocco’s Investigative Police Agency to participate as an observer in the July 2008 International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC) in Istanbul, Turkey. On October 15, 2008, the IDEC granted Morocco full voting member status. The USG is presently working to provide the GOM a DEA internet-based communication tool that will enable Morocco to communicate directly with other countries in the region as well as South American counterparts. This new communication system will allow real time exchange of intelligence information. In 2008, the U.S. DEA office in Paris was able to facilitate meetings and exchanges between the GOM and Colombian officials to discuss South American trafficking networks and the threat they pose to Africa.

USG training remains an important factor in Morocco’s efforts to combat illegal narcotics. During FY 2008, the U.S. Government provided training to Moroccan police, gendarmes, and customs officials in the areas of (1) narcotics identification and testing (2) advanced U.S. Coast Guard boarding procedures, (3) fraudulent document detection and (4) customs and border issues. The GOM requested 2009 narcotics-related training assistance from the U.S. in the areas of airport interdiction, basic investigator techniques and money laundering.

The Road Ahead. The endemic nature of the cannabis culture in Morocco will only be ameliorated through incremental application of Morocco’s comprehensive counternarcotics strategy. The U.S. will continue to monitor the illegal drug situation in Morocco, cooperate with the GOM in its counternarcotics efforts, and, together with the EU, provide law enforcement training, intelligence and other support.

V. Money Laundering and Financial Crimes
Morocco is not a regional financial center, but money laundering is a concern due to its narcotics trade, vast informal sector, trafficking in persons, and large level of remittances from Moroccans living abroad. According to the 2008 World Drug Report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Morocco remains the world’s principal producer and exporter of cannabis resin. Credible estimates of Morocco’s informal financial sector range between 17 and 40 percent of GDP. In 2007, remittances from Moroccans living abroad increased by 15 percent over their level in 2006, and totaled more than $7 billion, approximately nine percent of GDP. Although the true extent of the money laundering problem in the country is unknown, conditions exist for it to occur.

In the past few years, the Kingdom of Morocco has taken a series of steps to address the problem, most notably the enactment of a comprehensive anti-money laundering (AML) bill in May 2007 and the planned establishment of a Financial Intelligence Unit, expected to become operational in Rabat in early 2009. The predominant use of cash, informal value transfer systems and remittances from abroad all help fuel Morocco’s informal sector. Bulk cash smuggling is also a problem. There are unverified reports of trade-based money laundering, including under-and over-invoicing and the purchase of smuggled goods. Most businesses are cash-based with little invoicing or paper trail. Cash-based transactions in connection with cannabis trafficking are of particular concern. According to the UNODC, Morocco remains the world’s principal producer of cannabis, with revenues estimated at over $13 billion annually. While some of the narcotics proceeds are laundered in Morocco, most proceeds are thought to be laundered in Europe.

Unregulated money exchanges remain a problem in Morocco and were a prime impetus for Morocco’s recent AML legislation. Although the legislation targets previously unregulated cash transfers, the country’s vast informal sector creates conditions for this practice to continue. While the Moroccan banking sector is a regional leader, only three in ten Moroccans use banks. The sector consists of 16 banks, five government-owned specialized financial institutions, approximately 30 credit agencies, and 12 leasing companies. The monetary authorities in Morocco are the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Central Bank—Bank Al Maghrib—that monitors and regulates the banking system. A separate Foreign Exchange Office regulates international transactions.

Since 2003, Morocco has taken a series of steps to tighten its AML controls. In December 2003, the Central Bank issued Memorandum No. 36, in advance of pending AML legislation that instructed banks and other financial institutions under its control to conduct internal analysis and investigations into financial transactions. The measures called for the reporting of suspicious transactions, retention of suspicious activity reports, and mandated “know your customer” procedures. In 2007, Morocco’s AML efforts took a significant step forward with parliamentary passage and promulgation of a comprehensive AML law, which draws heavily from FATF recommendations. The law requires the reporting of suspicious financial transactions by all responsible parties, both public and private, who in the exercise of their work, carry out or advise on the movement of funds possibly related to drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, corruption, terrorism, tax evasion, or forgery. The Bank al-Maghrib and the Ministry of Economy and Finance embarked on a major campaign to publicize the law in 2007, but delays in promulgating the decrees to implement the legislation meant that the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) did not become operational in 2008. The government has set a new goal of January 2009 for establishment of the FIU. There were no prosecutions for money laundering in Morocco in 2008.

Morocco has a free trade zone in Tangier, with customs exemptions for goods manufactured in the zone for export abroad. There have been no reports of trade-based money laundering schemes or terrorist financing activities using the Tangier free zone or the zone’s offshore banks, which are regulated by an interagency commission chaired by the Ministry of Finance.

While there have been no verified reports of international or domestic terrorist networks using the Moroccan narcotics trade to finance terrorist organizations and operations in Morocco, investigations into the Ansar Al Mahdi and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) terrorist organizations are ongoing. At least two suspects arrested as part of the Ansar Al Mahdi cell were accused of providing financing to the cell.

Morocco has a relatively effective system for disseminating United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) terrorist freeze lists to the financial sector and law enforcement. Morocco has provided detailed and timely reports requested by the UNSCR 1267 Sanctions Committee and some accounts have been administratively frozen. In 1993, a mutual legal assistance treaty between Morocco and the United States entered into force.

Morocco is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, the UN Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism, the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the UN Convention against Corruption. Morocco is a charter member of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF).

In June 2003, Morocco adopted a comprehensive counterterrorism bill. This bill provided the legal basis for lifting bank secrecy to obtain information on suspected terrorists, allowed suspect accounts to be frozen, and permitted the prosecution of terrorist finance-related crimes. The law also provided for the seizure and confiscation of terrorist assets, and called for increased international cooperation with regard to foreign requests for freezing assets of suspected terrorist entities. The counterterrorism law brought Morocco into compliance with UNSCR 1373 requirements for the criminalization of the financing of terrorism. Other AML controls include legislation prohibiting anonymous bank accounts and foreign currency controls that require declarations to be filed when transporting currency across the border. Although Morocco criminalized terror finance (TF) in 2003, according to MENAFATF, “the Moroccan definition of TF is narrow, since it does not criminalize the act of using funds by a terrorist organization or by a terrorist.”

The Government of Morocco should continue to implement anti-money laundering/counterterrorist financing (AML/CTF) programs and policies that adhere to world standards, including a viable FIU that receives, analyzes, and disseminates financial intelligence. The informal economy is very significant in Morocco and authorities are likely to face major challenges as the new AML regime is implemented. Police and customs authorities, in particular, should enhance their ability to recognize money laundering methodologies, including trade-based laundering and informal value transfer systems.