Moroccan authorities investigate “fake news” linking senior officials to drug trafficking

2024-01-10 05:39:38

MADRID, 10 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –

This Tuesday, the Casablanca Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into the dissemination of a series of “fake news” on social networks regarding the involvement of senior officials in the country in the case related to the alleged drug trafficker Ahmed ben Ibrahim, better known as ‘El Maliense’ or ‘The Escobar of the Desert’.

Thus, the Prosecutor’s Office has assured in a statement that this information “falsely” involves political figures and national institutions in a process that has already led to the arrest of 25 people, among whom are parliamentarians, community leaders and officials, according to what has been reported. published by the Moroccan news portal Hespress.

In this sense, it has expressed its intention to undertake “rapid legal actions” based on the preservation of the presumption of innocence, and has reiterated its commitment to finding the original source of this “false news.”

The ‘Escobar of the desert’ came to control the chain of production, processing and distribution of cocaine from Latin America to West Africa, from where it was distributed to Europe. The drug trafficker, who was part of a high-end hotel in Marbella, went on to establish connections in Bolivia, where he had several properties, as well as others on a private island in Guinea, in Brazil, in Russia and in Casablanca.

In 2015 he was arrested in Mauritania after an Interpol investigation, although he was eventually released in 2019 despite carrying three tons of cocaine at the time of his capture. When he returned to Morocco that year, he was again detained at Casablanca’s Mohamed V airport and transferred to the prison in the city of El Jadida.

The ‘Escobar of the desert’ accused his partners in the country of treason, who had supposedly assured him that there was no search and arrest warrant against him. Ben Ibrahim, who has not yet been found guilty in the case, is accused of international drug trafficking, money laundering and falsification of official documents.