Newspaper article 5, Contraband Modern in the Fes Medina

Customs Look for Mafia Contraband

By Boukhalef
Maghreb Al Yawm, No. 1, January 11, 1996

Maghreb Al Yawm has come to know from trusted sources that authorities have arrested more than 24 persons accused of smuggling, and the same sources added that some great Mafia smugglers are included amongst the accused. Probably this issue is a starting point to bring to justice the leaders of the contraband gangs in our country. And it is planned to present the accused people in front of the court on Monday afternoon in The Court of Primary Appeals at Anfa.

One official at the customhouse declared to Maghreb Al Yawm that the administration works hard to search out members of the Mafia to eradicate their activities and present them in the courts. He added that this Mafia assembles dangerous smugglers grouped in gangs that own sophisticated technology and use huge manpower to pass on huge quantities of smuggled products into our country.

The value of the constrained commodities has seen a noticeable rise reaching 130.9 dirhams in the period between December 1994 and June 1995 instead of 97.5 million in the same period the last year. One official states, “The information campaign organized by the customhouse since 2 October 1995 aimed at an inclusive recruitment of assistants in the customhouse, and to sensitize the consumer about the negative results of smuggling on the economic and social life of the country and also on the citizen’s health.” He considers that the discussions and the questions raised during the campaign by the press, the parliament, the economists or the consumers is a new sign of the importance of the issue. He supports his arguments with what he refers to as “the testimonies of agreement and approval expressed by some Moroccan and foreign investors during the symposium and the meeting organized by the customhouse.” He aboids the negative reaction of the citizens towards the customhouse services and he states: “I don’t think that we can describe this relation as inharmonious and as lacking in confidence,” except to confess that “this relation has known some difficulties that the administration tries to eradicate”. The customhouse adds to its traditional role of supplying storage another role of providing business with new strategies based on dissemination of information and maintenance of transparency in matters of information.

The customhouse responsibility doesn’t stop at the ordinary and the official confirms that his administration has taken serious steps to achieve real and active communication with citizens by simplifying the procedures of the customhouse, by creating new administrative strategies complying with the latest developments in international trading, by constituting new customs offices, and more interestingly by punishing irresponsible administrators.

According to some studies done by the customhouse, the small smugglers are a million now and “have worked for the benefit of professional smugglers inside well organized institutions”. If the administration “treats the small smugglers with kindness, it attacks substantially the professional smuggling activities.” To achieve that, the campaign “concentrates first on controlling the frontiers and their surroundings. This operation is supported by the attacks of the places where the smuggled commodities are hidden.”

Because some of the smugglers opt for smuggling the customs department aims to acquire commodities cheaper than the local ones in order to attract more clients; the administration insists that the smugglers should work legally. And to encourage them, adds the same source, “There is the reduction of customs duties to 5% from September 1994 that includes 500 imported products that exist in the contraband market. The finance draft law of 1996 adds a second list of products that are sold in the contraband markets and fixes the rate of customs duty on them at 10% with a total exemption from customs when they are imported 
( PFT)”.

Customs have known several reductions since 1983 as they passed through 400% to 100% and to 60% in 1984, 45% in 1986, 40% in 1992, and 35% in 1993.