RABAT, Oct 27 (NNN-MAP) – Moroccan police, yesterday, arrested 23 people in the northern city of Nador and surrounding areas, on suspicion of smuggling migrants to Europe.
The arrested people, including four from sub-Saharan Africa, were involved in an organised criminal ring, active in human trafficking in northern Morocco, it added.
Two jet skis, two pleasure boats and ten cars were seized in the police raid, in addition to 125 outboard motors, eight dinghies, and large quantities of nautical instruments, including GPS, life jackets, gasoline cans and logs, the report said.
The police also dismantled a place for producing the dinghies involved in the crime, in the town of Selouane, Nador province, it said.
The Moroccan city of Nador, which borders Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Africa, witnessed a deadly stampede in June, when more than 2,000 sub-Saharan migrants tried to breach the border fences.
Morocco has long been a popular transit country, for African migrants seeking to reach Europe.– NNN-MAP
