5 arrested in Tan Tan, Mehdia for alleged links with irregular migration networks

Elements of the judicial police in Tan Tan and Mehdia (near Kenitra) arrested five individuals on Thursday for their alleged links with criminal networks involved in organizing irregular migration and human trafficking, as part of security operations carried out by the national security services to combat this phenomenon.

The suspects were arrested during two separate security operations, according to a security source, adding that an attempt to migrate illegally by sea using a fishing boat was thwarted in Mehdia, resulting in the arrest of four people, aged between 29 and 36, in flagrante delicto for preparing this operation on behalf of a group of would-be migrants.

At the same time, elements of the Tan Tan judicial police arrested a 30-year-old smuggler, who was accompanied by a group of would-be migrants, noting that he was preparing an attempt at irregular migration off the mouth of the Oued Draa.

A check of the suspects in the National Security database revealed that one of the smugglers and one of the candidates for irregular migration were the subject of two national search warrants issued by the Tan Tan and Casablanca judicial police departments, for their alleged involvement in two cases of fraud and assault and battery.

The organizers of the two irregular migration operations, as well as the candidates for clandestine migration, were subjected to the procedures of the judicial investigation carried out under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor’s office, in order to identify all the people involved in these two criminal networks and, in so doing, determine their potential links and ramifications, whether within Morocco or abroad.

The foiling of these irregular migration operations is part of the sustained and ongoing efforts by the services of the Directorate General for National Security to combat irregular migration and human trafficking networks, according to the same source.