Moroccan authorities struggle with trafficking problem

Moroccan officials have been working with their Spanish counterparts to tackle smuggling French authorities are questioning a man accused of being the mastermind behind a drugs trafficking network which operated between France and Morocco. According to Moroccan newspaper Today News, drugs were transported between the two countries via light aircraft.
On Monday, several French newspapers reported that Judge Guillaume Kotel had summoned the suspect, known as BB, to court on charges of forming a criminal gang, money laundering and earning money from the drugs trade. French media reports estimated that the shares of BB\'s property companies were worth in the region of €18m.
In a statement to the French press, the defendant denied that he knew anything about his aircraft being used for the transportation of drugs, and claimed that the authorities did not find any drugs when the aircraft had been thoroughly searched. BB also commented on his relationship with French pilot Christophe Sormani, and reportedly told authorities that he had stopped working with Sormani after 2009, denying that he had any knowledge of a drugs network active in the southern suburbs of France.
Today News reported that BB was being investigated for his links to Sormani, who had previously been arrested in October 2010 for questioning in relation to drug trafficking for the benefit of two cartels. The first carlet was reportedly being run by Hawari al-arstana and Badr al-Din Brekke, in the city of Marseille. The second network, led by Francis Kasitola, operated between northern Morocco and southern Spain. Authorities mounted a crackdown on the second network last year, and found links to a group of Moroccans drug traffickers.
The Moroccan newspaper added that Sormani had been paid €50,000 for each transfer of drugs by air, and he was found guilty of being complicit in the operations, and sentenced to six years in prison by a court in Marseille last year.
The problem of drug-smuggling has blighted Moroccan authorities for several years. More recently, Spanish authorities dismantled an international ring of drug-dealers operating between Morocco and Spain. Large amounts of the drug, marijuana was seized, along with smuggling vehicles such as boats and cars with fake registration plates.
Spanish and Moroccan officials have arrested dozens of international smugglers and drug traffickers from various nationalities over the last 12 months.
Last year, the stated in a report that Morocco alone exported 82 per cent of the total drugs seized around the world in 2012.