{"id":7509,"date":"2026-06-26T16:35:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/morocco-jails-29-including-politicians-and-sports-figures-in-drug-trial\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T16:35:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:35:51","slug":"morocco-jails-29-including-politicians-and-sports-figures-in-drug-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/morocco-jails-29-including-politicians-and-sports-figures-in-drug-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Morocco jails 29, including politicians and sports figures, in drug trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Casablanca court delivers landmark verdict in \u2018Escobar of the Sahara\u2019 case: up to 12 years for top figures.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p data-path-to-node=\"2\">A Moroccan court has handed prison sentences of up to 12 years to 29 individuals \u2013 including prominent politicians and sports figures \u2013 concluding a major international drug trafficking and corruption trial.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\">The verdicts, delivered late on Thursday in Casablanca following a two-year trial, mark one of the largest anti-corruption operations in Morocco\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/10\/10\/youth-led-protests-in-morocco-push-for-reforms-ahead-of-kings-speech\">Morocco king calls for social reforms amid youth-led protests<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/24\/how-epstein-tried-to-buy-a-moroccan-palace-months-before-his-death\">How Epstein tried to buy a Moroccan palace months before his death<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/7\/28\/outlaws-morocco-rif-provides-refuge-cannabis-farmers\">\u2018Outlaws\u2019: Morocco\u2019s Rif provides refuge for cannabis farmers<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\">Among those convicted were Abdennebi Bioui, a construction tycoon and former regional council president, Said Naciri, former president of Casablanca\u2019s Wydad AC football and sports club and former MP Belkacem Mir \u2013 all senior members of the governing PAM party. Naciri received 10 years, Bioui 12 and Mir 10.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\">Besides the three main defendants, sentences for the remaining ranged from two to nine years, depending on their individual role in the network.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\">The wide-ranging case was triggered by courtroom testimony from El Hadj Ahmed Ben Brahim, a notorious Malian drug trafficker nicknamed the \u201cPablo Escobar of the Sahara\u201d.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\">Currently serving a 10-year sentence in Morocco, Ben Brahim told judicial investigators that his former Moroccan political and business associates had betrayed him, seizing millions of dollars worth of his luxury real estate and vehicles following his arrest in 2019.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">The trial involved more than 20 defendants, 18 witnesses and two civil parties which centred on a sophisticated network that transported tonnes of Moroccan cannabis resin across North Africa to Europe, alongside Latin American cocaine shipments.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4704585\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4704585\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/afp_6a3e8475bcb1-1782482037.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C513&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Family members of Said Naciri and Abdennabi Bioui, two Moroccan public figures, react as they are handed out 10 and 12 years in prison sentences over a major drug trafficking scheme linked to a convicted Malian kingpin, dubbed the \"Escobar of the Sahara\" case, at the Court of Appeals in Casablanca on June 25, 2026.\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4704585\">Family members of Moroccan public figures Said Naciri and Abdennabi Bioui react as they are given 10 and 12 year prison sentences for a major drug trafficking scheme [Abdel Majid Bziouat\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">Defendants were convicted on charges including drug and gold trafficking, corruption, forgery and money laundering.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">The court also ordered the seizure of assets and levied hundreds of millions of dollars in customs and exchange fines against the principal ringleaders.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">Moroccan media reported that families of the convicted, present without legal representation due to a lawyers\u2019 strike, were left in shock, with some collapsing in the courthouse.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\"><span>The scandal reached the highest levels of state, prompting King Mohammed VI to demand a legally binding code of ethics aimed at \u201cmoralising\u201d parliamentary life.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Casablanca court delivers landmark verdict in \u2018Escobar of the Sahara\u2019 case: up to 12 years for top figures. A Moroccan court has handed prison sentences of up to 12 years to 29 individuals \u2013 including prominent politicians and sports figures \u2013 concluding a major international drug trafficking and corruption trial. The verdicts, delivered late on &#8230; <a title=\"Morocco jails 29, including politicians and sports figures, in drug trial\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/morocco-jails-29-including-politicians-and-sports-figures-in-drug-trial\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Morocco jails 29, including politicians and sports figures, in drug trial\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}