As COVID vaccines become mandatory for jobs and travel, a black market has erupted with forged vaccine passes and PCR tests, warned the Ministry of Interior on Monday.
The Ministry said persons responsible for these acts could face criminal prosecution for “threatening citizen’s health and life, even compromising the national vaccination campaign which is progressing satisfactorily.”
The Ministry of Interior confirmed the spread of forged Covid-19 related documents during a meeting in its headquarters in Rabat.
An increase in cases of falsifications was noticed for both PCR certificates and vaccine passes.
Recently, the brigade of the royal gendarmerie in Casablanca caught a nurse in the act of delivering fake PCR certificates.
During investigations, police found that certificates had the contact details of people who had never gone to the hospital to get tested.
The nurse was giving fake PCR certificates to people who wanted to travel abroad without getting tested, in return for a sum of money of up to MAD1,000, according to Lematin.
Hespress English was able to identify six Facebook pages cashing in on testing kits on the internet, addressed to cities such as Casablanca and Agadir, at times offering free delivery for prices ranging around MAD 100.
Long before the onset of the pandemic, an illicit economy for medicines had been prospering globally, with a wide range of illegal products traded on the black market.
In early December 2020, Interpol warned its 194 member countries to brace for organized crime groups working in the falsification, theft and illegal advertising of COVID-19 related products.
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