Fuel traffic to Morocco, 'real adventure' for smugglers

The traffic of fuel to Morocco through the Western border strip has become “an adventure” for smugglers, given the draconian system set up by different security forces  to counter this phenomenon, a real drain on the national economy.
During an operation by National Gendarmerie, on the night of Sunday to Monday along the border area, journalists from the national press realized the effectiveness of the mechanism deployed by the border guard units, in coordination with various units of the National Gendarmerie.
The figures speak for themselves and reflect the efforts deployed by the various security services to permanently contain and eradicate this problem. In the first seven months of this year, 500,000 litres of fuel were seized against 320,000 litters during the same period last year.
The command of the 17th group of Bab El Assa’s border guard, Lieutenant-Colonel Abdelwahab Benaffia, noted a change in the trafficking methods in order to “adapt” to the fighting mechanism put in place.
The traffickers are forced to use donkeys to transport the fuel in order to reduce the risk of seizure, he said.
The same officer underlined that the quantity of illegally transported fuel to neighboring countries declined as shown by the significant seizures in the region thanks to the measures taken with a view to steming this distribution channel.