Mr. Naciri, president of the Prefectural Council of Casablanca (west), and Abdennabi Biioui, president of the Regional Council of Oriental (east of Morocco), are suspected of having played a key role in the network of a baron of Malian drug addict, Ahmed Ben Brahim, nicknamed the “Pablo Escobar of the Sahara”.
This vast investigation concerns 25 people, 20 of whom are in detention, including MM. Naciri and Biioui, suspected in particular of “possession, marketing and export of drugs” and “corruption”, according to the prosecution. Nothing filtered through the hearings Thursday at the Casablanca Court of Appeal of MM. Naciri and Biioui, 54 years old and 52 years old, who will be questioned again by an investigating judge, on February 7 and 15 respectively, their lawyers said.
This affair, which caused a lot of noise in Morocco, was triggered by revelations from Ahmed Ben Brahim, a Malian incarcerated in the country since 2019 in connection with an international drug trafficking case. The suspects are linked to its sprawling network deployed in Algeria, Niger, Libya and Egypt, according to the preliminary investigation.
