After two years of trial, Moroccan justice on Thursday sentenced the former boss of the Wydad Casablanca (WAC) football club, Said Naciri, and the former president of a region in eastern Morocco, Abdennabi Bioui, respectively to 10 and 12 years in prison in a vast drug trafficking case known as “Escobar of the Sahara”.
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MM. Naciri and Bioui were prosecuted in particular for “possession, marketing and export of drugs” as well as for acts of “corruption”, “forgery” and “use of forgery”.
This affair, which caused a lot of noise in the country, was triggered by the revelations of Ahmed Ben Brahim, known as “Escobar of the Sahara”, a Malian national imprisoned in Morocco since 2019 in connection with an international drug trafficking case.
This is the first time in Morocco that a trial involves leading political figures in a drug trafficking case.
At the Casablanca Court of Appeal, the sentencing of the rest of the defendants – around twenty – was almost inaudible, as the sobs and cries of their loved ones, present in large numbers, filled the courtroom.
People gather during the final hearing of the trial of the international drug trafficking case “Escobar of the Sahara” at the Criminal Chamber of the Casablanca Court of Appeal, in Casablanca, June 25, 2026.
AFP
An AFP journalist was able to hear that one of the accused had been exonerated.
“I was convinced of his innocence and thank God he got it. He is in shock, because he has been attending the trial every week for more than two years in painful conditions,” said Abderrahim Saidi, the lawyer for this man acquitted of “falsifying a public register”.
MM. Naciri and Bioui are both former executives of the Authenticity and Modernity party (PAM, liberal), a member of the government coalition. They have been in detention since the end of 2023.
During a hearing last year, Mr. Bioui assured that he had “no link with drug trafficking” and accused Ahmed Ben Brahim of telling “lies”.
Mr. Naciri also denied all accusations against him.
– Millions of euros –
Malian drug lord Ahmed Ben Brahim, nicknamed the “Pablo Escobar of the Sahara”, who has been serving a 10-year sentence in Morocco since 2019, is at the origin of the complaint that initiated the legal proceedings.
He accuses in particular MM. Naciri and Bioui for having helped him smuggle drugs from Morocco to countries in North Africa and the Sahel from 2013 and for having robbed him of a luxurious villa in Casablanca.
The drug trafficker, who was not heard during the trial, attributes in his statements the role of facilitator of the transport of drugs to the former boss of Wydad Casablanca and affirms that the former president of the Oriental Regional Council would be involved in trafficking within his vast network and for his own account.
During the debates, the two fallen political figures were also questioned about the origin of their fortune of several million euros accumulated in recent years. Both claimed their assets came from legal activities.
The defense of the two accused insisted, during the pleadings, on the absence of material evidence incriminating them, judging that the prosecution was mainly based on the statements of the Malian trafficker, reported the local press.
For its part, the prosecution considered that the elements of the file confirmed the guilt of the accused, according to the same source.
