Tebboune’s Southern Rail Vision: Algeria’s 2,400-Km Push into the Sahara Copy link

Algeria Gate: In a recent report, the Spanish newspaper Moncloa revealed that Morocco’s continued position as one of the world’s top hashish producers remains a major driver of international drug trafficking networks. The illicit trade, the report stresses, has significantly strengthened criminal gangs and expanded both their logistical reach and financial power.

Titled “How the disappearance of Spain’s anti-drug trafficking unit is affecting the situation,” the report notes that Morocco is still among the leading global producers of cannabis. As a result, the bulk of the hashish crossing the Strait of Gibraltar originates in the north of the kingdom, cementing Morocco’s role as a primary source of this illegal trade.

The newspaper points out that the Strait of Gibraltar: only 14 kilometres wide at its narrowest, has become a strategic corridor for Moroccan hashish. Criminal networks have since exploited the same logistical routes to smuggle other drugs, particularly cocaine, sharply increasing the scale of criminal activity linked to these Moroccan pathways.

According to the report, the enormous profits generated by Moroccan hashish have allowed criminal organisations to develop their capabilities on an unprecedented scale. They now operate with ultra-fast boats, advanced navigation systems, encrypted communications, and drones to monitor security forces. They can also rapidly replace seized equipment and recruit new members within a short time.

Moncloa further observes that these networks increasingly function like major corporations, managing complex financial operations and expanding money-laundering activities, all sustained by the vast revenues from the Moroccan hashish trade.

The expansion of this trade, the report adds, has entrenched the influence of criminal gangs in several Moroccan coastal areas. Visible signs of illicit enrichment and growing money-laundering networks point to the rise of a criminal economy built on drug trafficking from the kingdom.

The newspaper notes that criminal organisations are no longer limited to smuggling hashish shipments from Morocco. They are continuously investing in technology and long-term planning, enabling them to refine their methods and broaden their criminal operations.

Moncloa concludes that as long as Morocco remains one of the world’s largest hashish producers, it will continue to feed international drug trafficking networks and flood countries with these drugs.

Algeria Gate: In a shocking scene from the heart of the Moroccan city of Agadir that illustrates the country’s transformation into a haven for criminals and terrorism, videos circulating on social media; and documented by the “Algeria Gate” platform, show the opening of a fast-food restaurant bearing the name and image of Jawad Ben Daoud.

The Frenchman of Moroccan origin, nicknamed the “ISIS landlord,” had rented an apartment to shelter two of the perpetrators of the 2015 terrorist attack in Saint-Denis, France, which left 130 people dead. Among them were the mastermind of the attack, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and his accomplice Chakib Akrouh; both Belgians of Moroccan origin.

Jawad Ben Daoud was sentenced by the French courts to four years in prison for his proven involvement in sheltering terrorists on the run from justice.

Just twenty four hours. That’s the gap that exposed the real distance between official rhetoric and lived reality in Morocco. On the evening of July 29, King Mohammed VI delivered his 27th Throne Day speech, touting 4.9% economic growth, a “good” agricultural season that reinforced “water and food security,” and a kingdom “admired by the world” for its “security, stability, and institutional efficiency.” Before the ink on that speech had dried, thousands of Moroccan families were fleeing on foot and swimming toward occupied Ceuta, escaping the very country just described as a rising model.

A Contradiction That Needs No Interpretation

The Throne speech spoke of a “trajectory of economic ascent,” “reinforcing national sovereignty,” and “strong capacity to confront disasters and crises.” But the real crisis that exploded in the state’s face hours later was not a natural flood requiring “proactive management” it was a human flood of despair: between 50,000 and 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta in under a day, including thousands of minors and families, amid a death toll approaching ninety according to Spanish sources, with Moroccan authorities still failing to issue a unified official count as of this writing.

Where? is the “food security” the speech spoke of, in scenes of young men abandoning their motorbikes on Fnideq’s beaches, choosing the risk of drowning over staying? Where is “institutional efficiency” in an outright failure to even count the dead and missing days after the disaster? The royal speech spoke of growth nearing 5%, yet that growth did not translate into a horizon real enough to stop tens of thousands of Moroccans from choosing the sea over the homeland.

At the same time, despite the speech’s praise for the “excellent organization of continental and international events” that “stirred envy among some,” renewed popular calls are hitting the streets under the banner “No to corruption, no to high prices, yes to change” revealing that the “envy” the speech speaks of is not necessarily admiration, but sometimes a question about the point of investing billions in an international façade while the interior burns.

Legitimay Isn’t Manufactured Through Speeches

The deeper paradox is that the speech itself framed “security and stability” as the foundation of “economic ascent.” But what stability is this, that drives broad segments of youth into collective, mortal risk-taking, while pushing others into the streets demanding change? When temporary graves in Tetouan and Fnideq intersect with voices chanting against high prices and corruption, the gap between the official narrative and lived reality can no longer be dressed up with macroeconomic figures.

Ultimately

Official Morocco delivers speeches about ascent, while street-level Morocco drowns and protests. As long as the state keeps reading the crisis through the lens of grand achievements instead of acknowledging the depth of despair driving its children to flee or take to the streets, what is unfolding is not a passing crisis that another ceremonial speech can contain it is a marker of an accelerating collapse of a social contract that has already lost its power to persuade.