In a joint operation between the judicial police in Nador, Oujda and Berkane and the services of the General Directorate of National Territorial Surveillance, the day before yesterday morning, in Nador, Berkane and Oujda, 18 persons suspected of involvement in the commission of economic crimes, including speculation and fraud in fuel and oils intended for vehicles, were arrested.
A communiqué to the General Directorate of National Security stated that these security operations, which were carried out simultaneously in several warehouses in the city of Oujda and in the Selouane and Zayo regions of Nador province, and in the Aklim region on the outskirts of Berkane, and Al-Murais near Ahfir, resulted in the arrest of 18 people, including operators of industrial warehouses and stations. For the supply of fuel and employees, on suspicion of their involvement in the commission of these criminal acts and participation, as well as the seizure of tens of tons of fuel and oils of questionable quality.
The same source explained that the research and investigations carried out in this case, up to the purpose of this stage of the research, indicated that the suspects were intending to recycle and mix old oils used in vehicle engines, mix them with chemicals and offer them for sale, in violation of the specifications book for the industrial unit they exploit. As well as mixing the fuels with the materials extracted from these oils fraudulently and selling them at a preferential price, claiming that they are subsidized fuels.
The inspections carried out in the places targeted by these operations resulted, according to the General Directorate, in the seizure of tens of tons of fuel of questionable quality, which are being subjected to the necessary technical expertise in coordination with the competent authorities, to verify the extent of their damage to vehicles. Dozens of trucks, cranes, tank trailers, and containers have also been seized. Metal and large plastic ones for storing fuel, in addition to large quantities of used oils, and 20 cars, including utility vehicles and four-wheel drive vehicles, in addition to 11 cans of shira.
The persons arrested in conjunction with the security intervention operations were subjected to judicial investigation procedures under the supervision of the competent Public Prosecution, in order to reveal all the circumstances and circumstances of this case, and to verify all criminal acts attributed to the arrested persons, as well as to monitor all possible extensions and connections nationally to this case.
The circumstances of the case, which attracts the attention of local and national public opinion, recall the period of the nineties of the last century, when smuggled Algerian fuel crossed the land borders between the two countries to settle in warehouses that were redistributed through black points of sale in installments scattered in the cities of the region and abroad.
However, the deterioration of bilateral relations between Algeria and Morocco prompted the Algerian authorities during the year 2012 to tighten the closure of the land border crossings, which for two decades had known the flow of smuggled fuel shipments towards Morocco, and proceeded to dig a deep trench along the path of the border strip in a security step aimed, according to the perspective of Algerian politicians, to Strangling the eastern region of Morocco economically and provoking social protests within it as a result of the illusion of the maliciously woven Algerian scenario that the Moroccan East is linked commercially and economically to the popularity provided by the border strip.
However, the Kingdom’s launch in 2013 of an ambitious and unprecedented program to rehabilitate the eastern region and integrate it into the national economic fabric thwarted Algerian plans and maneuvers and created a national momentum and a continuous local discussion to discuss the problems and prospects of multi-axial development in the region, which gradually got rid of the complex of dependence on the unstructured service sectors or those linked to the ports. border.