Cartel-linked Kenyan arrested in Morocco for arms dealing
In an international arms trafficking bust, a Kenyan national has been arrested in Morocco at the request of U.S prosecutors.
According to the Moroccan government-friendly news outlet Hespress, authorities in Morocco apparently made the arrest on April 8th. The Kenyan national was accused of participating in an arms trafficking ring that illegally supplied military grade weapons to Mexican drug cartels.
The weapons included assault rifles, rocket launchers, grenades, and anti-aircraft weapons.
The suspect is reportedly undergoing an extradition process, as announced by the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Other members of the trafficking group have been arrested in different countries. The news outlet claims Bulgarian arms dealer, Petar Dimitrov Mershev, along with three African nationals who have been accused of conspiring to illegally supply arms since 2022, were incarcerated by Spanish officials in Madrid.
Separately, a Tanzanian has allegedly been extradited from Ghana. One Ugandan co-conspirator has purportedly not been found yet.
Prosecutors apparently claimed the group was caught securing falsified end-user certificates to export AK-47s, also planning additional shipments worth up to $58 million.
This case is said to be part of the U.S Department of Justice’s broader campaign against international criminal networks, coined “Operation Take Back America.”
Moroccan authorities are no strangers in tackling trafficking rings in general. Although mainly concerned with drug and migrant smuggling, there has been a spike in transnational crime groups.
Maghrebi.org reported about an incident in which 2 suspicious vehicles in the city of Azemmour were observed, followed, and busted by Royal Gendarmerie forces. The vehicles held 4 tonnes of cannabis, intended to be distributed to multiple countries along the Atlantic coastline.
With international crime on the rise, Morocco and the U.S find coordination and fight back in the mutual struggle.
Hespress, Maghrebi.org
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