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Algeria Gate: Did Morocco use its intelligence services to monitor people on Spanish soil? A new Amnesty International report sheds fresh light on the issue.

The 126-page document details what the organization calls Morocco’s “surveillance machine.” It documents the use of the Pegasus spyware against journalists, activists, lawyers and political figures, including targets outside Morocco.

Spanish daily El Mundo highlighted the Spanish dimension of the findings and the role of Morocco’s Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance (DGST).

Amnesty identified a cross-border campaign that targeted Moroccans living in Europe as well as foreign personalities. Spain emerged as one of the main theatres of these operations.

The first Spanish phone identified belonged to Sahrawi human-rights activist Aminatou Haidar. Investigators say it was infected on May 11th, 2018.

In 2019 the list expanded to include Moroccan journalist based in Spain Hussein Majdoubi and Spanish journalist Ignacio Cembrero, known for his reporting on Morocco.

Amnesty further states that Pegasus was used in 2021 against the phones of Spain’s defence, interior and agriculture ministers.

Some infections relied on “zero-click” techniques that require no action from the victim. Technical links between attacks allowed investigators to attribute the operations to a single operator.

The report concludes that the DGST deployed Pegasus in Morocco between 2017 and 2021, with possible later use. Journalists and human-rights defenders were among the primary targets from the outset.

These revelations gain added weight against the backdrop of the 2021 diplomatic crisis between Spain and Morocco, triggered by the hospitalisation in Spain of Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali.

Amnesty International calls for independent investigations and the suspension of surveillance technology transfers to Morocco until adequate human-rights safeguards are in place.

The findings, supported by both Amnesty’s technical analysis and Spanish media coverage, place Moroccan surveillance practices firmly at the centre of European concerns.

Algeria Gate: A Spanish judicial investigation has revealed an organized criminal network suspected of managing large-scale operations to smuggle large quantities of hashish from Morocco to Spain for sale and the laundering of the proceeds through financial and real estate deals. The case remains open before the Spanish National Court.

The Spanish newspaper El Español, citing the judicial investigation published the day before yesterday (Monday), reported that the file involves 22 people under investigation, 14 of whom are in pretrial detention, on suspicion of belonging to a criminal organization, drug trafficking, and money laundering. The newspaper relies on judicial documents and data from the investigation.

The starting point of the case was Operation “Caldo,” carried out by the Spanish Anti-Drug and Organized Crime Unit in September 2022, which dismantled an informal financial network of the “hawala” type, described by Spanish authorities at the time as a financial structure linked to drug networks in Europe.

Encrypted communications obtained by investigators via the EncroChat and Sky ECC platforms revealed names and networks linked to drug trafficking, its financing, and the laundering of its proceeds. From this financial investigation, a thread led investigators to Juan Carlos, known as “Moreno,” after his name appeared using this financial network to finance his drug trafficking activity.

Following this thread led to a broader investigation into his activity, which, according to the Spanish prosecution, revealed the continuation of his large-scale drug trafficking.

According to the judicial investigation, “Moreno” leads an organized criminal structure that imports large quantities of hashish from Morocco, receives it, distributes it, and manages the resulting profits. Documents cited by El Español indicate that the network was capable of moving thousands of kilograms of Moroccan hashish weekly, with its activity extending to several Spanish provinces before the drugs were transported to Madrid for distribution to clients.

Morocco appears in the investigation as the source of the drugs in this pathway. The investigations identified a person known as “El Loco,” a Moroccan national holding Spanish citizenship, as the presumed supplier of the hashish obtained by the network. The newspaper reported that this person fled to Morocco to avoid the execution of a prison sentence issued against him by the Spanish National Court.

Judicial documents reveal that the network’s activity was organized in stages, beginning with the reception of hashish shipments, their storage, transport, and distribution, and ending with the management and laundering of the money obtained from the trafficking. According to the investigation, the network also used properties in Madrid and Andalusia to store the drugs, while authorities seized more than two tons of hashish in one of the properties searched in Madrid.

Algeria Gate: New information published on September 29th, 2026, by Algeria Gate and confirmed by the Italian daily Il Foglio reports a discreet meeting in Abu Dhabi between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saddam Haftar, son of Khalifa Haftar and number two of the Libyan eastern forces.

According to Algeria Gate, several official flights from countries in the region converged on Al Bateen Airport in Abu Dhabi at the time of Netanyahu’s visit. Among them was an Airbus A319 registered P4-KH5I9, an aircraft presented as being usually used by Saddam Haftar. The plane is said to have landed at 12:40 p.m., about twenty minutes after Netanyahu’s arrival.

Saddam Haftar seeking political support

Il Foglio cites in particular Mohamed Buisier, a former political adviser to Khalifa Haftar, who states that Saddam Haftar met Netanyahu in order to seek political support for his ambitions for the Libyan presidency. The Times of Israel also relayed the information concerning the arrival of Saddam Haftar’s aircraft shortly after that of the Israeli Prime Minister.

The Italian daily also notes the presence, in the same time slot, of flights coming notably from Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, without publicly establishing in the article consulted the identity of all the officials who were on board.

The name of Yassine Mansouri mentioned

According to the information relayed by Algeria Gate, Yassine Mansouri, Director General of the DGED (Moroccan external intelligence), is said to have participated in the meeting on the Moroccan side. This participation is not, however, confirmed by name in the Il Foglio article consulted, which limits itself to noting the arrival of a flight from Morocco. Mansouri’s presence must therefore, at this stage, be presented as information still to be confirmed by other independent sources.

This sequence occurs at a time when Saddam Haftar is multiplying international contacts concerning the political future of Libya.

Il Foglio also states that he is seeking to consolidate his relays in Washington and with other foreign partners.

The Abu Dhabi episode thus fuels questions about the regional dealings surrounding the future of Libyan power and about the role played by the United Arab Emirates in these discreet diplomatic exchanges.