Casablanca – The dismantling, last Saturday, of the terrorist network that was active in several Moroccan cities, under the leadership of an influential member of a terrorist organization called “Mujahideen movement in Morocco,” has led to the arrest of fifteen persons and the seizure of several firearms, Chief of the national brigade of the Judicial Police (BNJP), Abdelhaq Khyam, told the press on Saturday during the presentation of the seized weapons.
These weapons were introduced into the country by members of the network in 2003 and 2005, he said.
The weapons, from Belgium, were hidden in farms near Tiflet and the region of Sebaâ Ayoun, the source said, adding that the investigations carried out in this case allowed the BNPJ identify and locate arms caches and follow the circuit of their traffic.
They are composed of four sub-machine guns, four automatic pistols, a Czech-made rifle, seventy-four 9 mm bullets and 30 others 7.65 mm, holster and four cartridges.
The seizure also included 10 computers, several mobile phones and amounts of money including 17,000 euros in possession of S.A, considered as the new “national emir” of the network.
The leader of this network, who had ties with international terrorist parties and organizations, managed to introduce these weapons in the national territory with the complicity of other members of this organization in order to use them in carrying out their terrorist plans, Interior Ministry had announced last week in a statement.
The investigation is not yet completed and investigations are ongoing to determine the connections of this terrorist network and its possible ramifications and arrest other potential accused, it said, adding that these organizations are structured into full partitioning cells.
The alleged members of the network were running shops, including one located in a local market of Tangier and another in Brussels, and agricultural projects in the Gharb region to finance the organization, revealed Khyam.
Investigations of the BNPJ and interrogation of the accused have enable to find weapons hidden in Tiflet and were in possession, since 2003, of a leader of the movement, AB.
These weapons were part of a quantity of arms including a first batch was seized in 2003.
According to preliminary investigation, the so-called AB, who was actively wanted, died in 2009 from a cancer. Being under the search warrant, he avoided seeking treatment in a hospital.
He was secretly buried on a farm in the region of Gharb in Souk Larbaa, belonging to a network member who was, likewise, apprehended.
The autopsy will be carried on the remains of the body to determine the exact cause of death.
Investigators have also unraveled the riddle of the murder of HB, another member of the network who was active in illegal immigration. He had been wounded with a knife on the orders of the Amir A.N, the source said.
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