At the end of the investigation procedure targeting Abdenbi Bioui and Saïd Naciri in the context of the “Escobar du Sahara” affair linked to international drug trafficking, justice decided to prosecute the two ousted parliamentarians of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) under arrest.
The president of the Oriental region is thus indicted for “forgery and use of forgery in public writing, extortion by coercion, complicity in the falsification of a public register, complicity in an arbitrary act detrimental to individual freedom, corruption, recurrent facilitation of the clandestine entry and exit of nationals from Moroccan territory as part of a gang, participation in the planning of detention, transport, export and marketing of narcotics.
Abdenbi Bioui is also being prosecuted for “receiving goods obtained following a crime, participation in false testimony, use of a vehicle without registration, attempts to export narcotics without declaration or authorization and complicity, participation in direct payments by the currency of goods and services within the national territory, complicity in payments without authorization from the Foreign Exchange Office by foreigners with a view to the purchase of a real estate in Morocco and this, by means other than the transfer of foreign currencies to Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM)”.
President of the commune of the districts of Sidi Belyout in Casablanca, Saïd Naciri is for his part prosecuted for “forgery and use of forgery in public writing, participation in the planning to possess, marketing, transport and exporting narcotics, fraud, and attempted fraud, influence peddling by elective mandate, incitement of others to give false testimony through the use of threats, receiving stolen property, falsification of checks, attempted export of narcotics without declaration or authorization, importation of foreign currencies without authorization, direct payment by the currency of goods and services in the national territory.
Last December, the investigating judge at the Casablanca Court of Appeal ordered the continued detention of the two defendants, in addition to other defendants. In total, at least 19 are suspected of being linked to an international drug trafficking network, known in the media as “Escobar of the Sahara”. Since then, they have been incarcerated at the local Oukacha prison.
