The former leader of a Tetouan drug cartel, Mounir Erramach, was released from prison in Salé on Tuesday after serving 21 years behind bars, according to local media.
The Sebta native, now 51, had been sentenced in 2004 to 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole after having been convicted of international drug trafficking, possession of firearms, corruption, premeditated murder, and other serious crimes.
In addition to his prison sentence, Erramach had been fined a staggering 3.372 billion MAD to be paid to the Moroccan Customs Administration.
Erramach was long known as one of the most influential drug lords in Morocco’s “underworld,” a figure representing a bygone era of rampant drug-related crimes before the government’s crackdown on the illegal industry.
Born in Sebta in 1974, Erramach took his first steps into the criminal world moving contraband, and smuggling cigarettes between Sebta and several cities in northern Morocco.
His criminal career escalated after a violent altercation with a rival gang member, which led to his first imprisonment. Subsequently, he became more deeply involved in drug trafficking, focusing on the sale of cannabis resin.