Moroccan authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle 541kg of cocaine through the port of the of Casablanca, Xinhua news agency reports.
According to a statement by the North African country’s Interior Ministry, the banned substance was concealed in a shipping container from South America.
6 people including the mastermind of the criminal network, a Brazilian national, were arrested in the operation, the statement said.
Five cars intended to be used for the transport of the drug were also seized as well as large sums of money in national and foreign currencies, it added.
The statement noted that preliminary investigations had revealed the nature of the criminal network, its transnational ramifications and links with cartels in Latin America which now exploit the strategic location of the Kingdom as a transit point to Europe adding that an investigation is underway to arrest all the people involved in this drug-trafficking attempt.
Moroccan security services have seized a record 2.84 tons of cocaine in 2017, 1.5 tons more than the amount seized last year.
