ANSAmed
by Diego Minuti
Radical Islamist cell busted in Spain, Morocco [ARCHIVE MATERIAL 20140316 ]
Bureau has already carried out first anti-ISIS operation
The progressive deterioration of security conditions in Maghreb by jihadist or alleged jihadist groups is leading countries in the region to boost their investigative units and, in this perspective, Morocco has set up the Bureau central des investigations judiciaires.
Set up along the lines of the American FBI, the institution has already accomplished an important anti-terror operation just a few hours after it was inaugurated. The operation kicked off at once in several major cities of the Kingdom – Agadir, Tangiers, Layoune, Abou Jad, Tifelt, Marrakech, Taroudant and An Harrouda – in which cells connected with the Islamic State were operating, according to initial investigations.
The final results of the operation have not been released yet but, according to Moroccan media reports on Monday, thanks to the Bureau’s intervention, a plan to kill politicians, civilians and soldiers was foiled and a sophisticated arsenal seized.
The aim of the foiled attack was reportedly to sow panic in the Kingdom, which would have seen its most representative leadership targeted, after the attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis.
The creation of the Bureau central des investigations judiciaires sees a reversal in trends in the dynamics of the fight on Islamic terror which, up until today, was based in Morocco on the territorial division of police investigative units with local structures that had a hard time exchanging information with the necessary speed.
Now, thanks to the BCIJ, there will be just one leadership to oversee investigations and make them more efficient before they are handled by the judiciary – as confirmed by the operation over the past few hours carried out thanks to an overall management of probes with actions to fight Islamic terrorism taking place at once.
Now, the headquarters of the Bureau – inaugurated on March 20 in the strategic precinct of Salè – will send out the necessary orders to local police in order to rationalize efforts, which have not been lacking, according to official data released by the interior ministry. From 2002 – year of the first bloody terror attack in the Kingdom – until today, 133 jihadist groups have been dismantled, according to the data. (ANSAmed)
