Officers of Morocco’s National Police (DGSN)–in collaboration with Morocco’s Territory Surveillance Services (DGST) and the Royal Gendarmerie–intervened in the early hours of Wednesday to halt two vans trafficking significant quantities of cannabis (known locally as chira) handled by drug dealers, according to a security source. A quantity totaling 10 tons and 300 kilograms of cannabis resin was seized.
The confrontation escalated to a gunfight when police were forced to discharge their firearms to neutralize the armed offenders.
Around 5 A.M., Judicial Police intercepted a Renault Master van loaded with numerous packages of chira on Mohammed VI Boulevard in Casablanca, coming from Rissana, a rural commune in Laarach, Northern Morocco.
Meanwhile, the perpetrators aboard another Ford Transit van, carrying a substantial amount of chira, fled towards Mediouna (25 km northeast of Casablanca) before hitting the highway to Mohammedia.
The driver’s accomplice in the second vehicle opened fire on the law enforcement officers using a “Benelli” shotgun.
After the van’s tires bursted due to police spike strips, the passengers abandoned the vehicle on the highway shoulder between the western and central parts of Mohammedia and continued to fire at police.
In response to the discharge, anti-gang officers used their service guns to deliver warning rounds and three additional shots, one of which hindered the armed trafficker–who incidentally died on the scene from his injuries–while his still-at-large co-conspirator was apprehended.
The deceased was wielding a rifle and a gun belt loaded with 16 bullets.
A search of the second van led to the seizure of several boxes of the same illicit substance, as well as another cartridge belt.