Police Yearly Report Boasts Anti-crime Efforts

The 2022 report by national police (DGSN) highlighted efforts in crime eradication as well as a downward trend in repressive cases. It indicated mixed trends in crimes as drug trafficking, cyber-extortion, illegal migration, financial fraud, and document forgery.
The results came after the implementation of the 2022-2026 Security Periodic Program which focuses on strengthening anti-crime structures, developing scientific and technical police laboratories, and enhancing the systematic use of criminal investigation and technical support tools in various investigations.
Concerning repressive cases, the report shows a significant decline with less than 30.22%, for a total of 820,274 cases. This helped identify 875,879 individuals and bring them to the public prosecution, whereas the statistics of violent crime did not exceed the threshold of 6.59%.
For the sixth consecutive year, the rate of solving crimes remained high, standing at 94.43% of registered cases and 85.34% of violent crimes. These indicators are the result of the amelioration of criminal investigation mechanisms, the efforts of the scientific and technical police, the successful coordination between the DGSN and the DGST services, as well as the immediate denunciation of crimes by victims and witnesses.
Regarding drugs, the collaboration between the BCIJ and DGST led to an 8% growth in security operations involving drugs and psychotropic substances. It allowed to process 92,713 cases as well as to arrest 120,725 people, including 241 foreigners; in addition to the seizure of 98,543 tons of cannabis resin, a decline of nearly 49%.
190.178 kg of cocaine was caught (87% decrease), and 2.821 kg of heroin was seized (a 5% decrease). In terms of psychotropic substances (ecstasy, captagon, and psychotropic pills), a rise of 85% was noted to reach a total of 2,668,473 tablets.
For Cyber-extortion, a similar upward trend was noticed in relating offenses, with a 5% increase and a total of 5,623 cases reported, compared to 5,366 cases the previous year.
The number of criminal content used in the recorded cases reached 3,935 with 752 orders for defendant identification, while 1,617 people were arrested and brought to justice for this motive.
In terms of sextortion crimes, the security services documented 417 cases this year, a 17% decrease versus the previous year, resulting in the arrest of 237 people involved in this form of crime against 428 victims, including 77 foreigners.
As for illegal migration, the efforts of security services have been crowned by the arrest of 32,733 would-be migrants, including 28,146 foreigners from different nationalities, the dismantling of 92 criminal networks, and the arrest of 566 organizers and intermediaries, an increase of more than 36% compared to 2021.
They also seized 832 forged travel documents or IDs, 193 boats, 156 sea engines, and 61 vehicles.
For financial fraud, police services processed 453 cases of corruption, influence peddling, fraud and misuse of public funds and blackmail, a roughly 17% rise compared to the previous year, with 595 individuals being investigated. 296 people were charged with corruption and influence peddling, 217 with fraud and misuse of public funds, and 82 with blackmail and abuse of power.
Regarding the crimes of counterfeiting, fraudulent use of means of payment, and currency trafficking, the security services have processed 27 cases of currency trafficking (+17%), 53,449 cases of check legislation violations (+17%), 184 cases of all types of financial frauds, and 208 cases of currency forgery.
Security operations resulted in the seizure of 9,373 counterfeit money worth 1,814,370 MAD and 17,701 counterfeit foreign currencies (6,530,370 euros, 105,900 US dollars, 743,000 Belarusian rubbles, and 2,420 pounds), as well as the dismantling of 39 criminal networks, 28 of which were involved in currency counterfeiting and forgery and 11 others in payment and credit card fraud, in addition to bringing 227 individuals of various nationalities to justice.
Finally for document forgery, the security services conducted 576 forensic examinations on falsified documents, a 5% increase over the previous year, as well as 5,533 forensic examinations on the digital contents of 18,050 electronic media, a 16% increase, and 201 ballistic examinations on 94 firearms and 7,458 ammunition and projectiles, a 10% increase over the previous year.
The Casablanca Forensic Laboratory received 16,762 requests for expertise during the current year and processed 13,454 of them, a 31% increase over the previous year. The same laboratory also received 1,134 requests for forensic chemistry expertise, while the drug and forensic toxicology service completed the required scientific competence in 1816 cases involving narcotics and psychotropic substances.