Moroccan authorities have seized more than three tons of cannabis resin from two boats sailing in the northeastern region of the Spanish province of Melilla, state media said on Saturday.
“The operation resulted in the seizing of two go-fast boats… with 85 bales of chira (cannabis resin) weighing a total of more than three tonnes,” a military source was quoted as saying by the official MAP news agency.
The cargo was seized in the town of Nador on Friday after the boats did not respond to the navy’s orders, prompting a chase, it added.
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Nador is close to the mountainous Rif region, known as an important area for the cultivation of cannabis seeds in Morocco – the largest producer of cannabis resin in the world according to the United Nations.
Moroccan police seized nearly 100 tonnes of the narcotic in 2022, about half the amount seized the previous year, according to annual figures from the DGSN security service.
Morocco in 2021 ordered the legalization of the use of “medical, cosmetic and industrial cannabis.”
This movement aims to organize the production of the substance – which employs thousands of families in the country – without destroying the livelihoods of local cultivators.
