Morocco Court Acquits Seven Judges And Officers In Drug Case

A Moroccan appeals court acquitted late Thursday seven officials, including judges and top-ranking police officers from involvement in a drug baron case, MAP official news agency reported on Friday. The defendants included three judges, two top-ranking policemen and two members of the Gendarmerie Royale (rural police). They were sentenced in 2004 by the Special Court of Justice (CSJ) to jail terms of up to two years for charges of corruption and involvement in the case of Mounir Erramach, a 29-year-old notorious drug baron sentenced to 20 years in jail for international drug trafficking. They had then resorted to the Court of Cassation which quashed the verdict and sent back the case to the court of appeals of Tangier, a port city in north Morocco, the report said. The case also involved a former top police officer who was tasked with the security of the king's palaces across the country. The police officer, Abdelaziz Izzou, was sentenced to one and a half year in jail, and six suspended months. Morocco is quite famous for its very large production of cannabis resin, known locally as Chira. Though cannabis harvest almost halved from 2003 to 2006 after the government ordered the destruction of crops, Morocco remains the world's first provider of cannabis, with some 70,000 hectares grown in the poor mountainous areas of Rif. The government has lately tightened control of drug trafficking, especially in Tangier and Casablanca. It installed scanners that enabled officers to seize tons of hashish and scores of international drug traffickers. In Tangier alone, customs officers seized in 2007 no less than 35 tons of hashish, up 25 percent from 2006. The banned substance is mostly directed to the European market.