Morocco’s Head of national police (DGSN) and of territory surveillance (DGST) Abdellatif Hammouchi has been approached by the French police chief to provide expertise for enhancing the security of the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to news outlet Jeune Afrique.
The visit of the chief of France’s national police force, Frédéric Veaux, to Hammouchi on December 12 in Rabat foretells that security cooperation will need to overcome the diplomatic chill that currently exists between Rabat and Paris.
The DGSN told MAP that the meeting focused on various shared security issues, including illegal narcotic and psychotropic drug trafficking, illegal immigration, terrorist threats, cybercrime dangers, and organized transnational crime.
The meeting also addressed the mechanisms for implementing joint operations within the framework of bilateral cooperation, particularly as they relate to the security of the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris. This is especially crucial as, eight months before the competitions scheduled for July 26 to August 11, 2024 are set to commence, the comprehensive security arrangements for this international sporting event remain far from complete.
The Olympic organizing committee and French authorities are grappling with unprecedented challenges, including the unique and complex opening ceremony to be held on the Seine. Additionally, there is a structural shortage of labor in private security–compounded by the memories of the June, 2022 riots and the concerning incidents during the 2022 UEFA Champions League final at the Stade de France–not to mention the resurgence of terrorist threats in France due to the situation in the Middle East, which has prompted the terror threat level in accordance with the Vigipirate security protocol to rise to its highest point in quite some time.
In this light, Hammouchi’s expertise is widely recognized and appreciated within the international intelligence community, particularly in the field of counterterrorism, as he was the one who oversaw the security for the last FIFA World Cup in Qatar at the request of Emir Tamim Al Thani in late 2022.
With this experience under his belt, along with his reputation as the “super cop of King Mohammed VI,” he could very well be the ideal candidate with whom to consult for bolstering the security of the next Olympic Games.
According to the official statement from DGSN, Hammouchi is expected to visit France soon to strengthen bilateral security cooperation and to diversify the levels and facets of this cooperation in the interests of both countries.
In 2015, during François Hollande’s presidency, these shared security interests helped defuse the crisis between Morocco and France sparked by the “Neuilly Slap” incident, when armed French police officers showed up at the residence of the Moroccan ambassador to summon Hammouchi, who was then the director of internal security.
Following the attacks on the Hyper Cacher and the Bataclan at the end of 2015, and in the face of a growing terrorist threat, the authorities in France eventually turned to the same Hammouchi, whose expertise in intelligence led to the location of the most wanted man in France at the time, the jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a key figure in the November 13 attacks. While no official apology was provided, the head of DGSN and DGST was awarded the Legion of Honor, which helped put an end to the rift.