French drug baron wanted by Interpol arrested in Morocco

A French drug trafficker involved in an international network and wanted by Interpol was arrested Friday in Casablanca, Morocco, Moroccan police said Tuesday.

The man -- whose identity was not revealed by the DGSN -- was arrested "for his links with a criminal network of international trafficking of hard drugs between Belgium, France and the Netherlands," the statement said, without further details.

According to Moroccan media, the man in question is "Noureddine B.", a drug baron on the run for several years.

The Interpol red notice was issued last April at the request of the French judicial authorities for criminal association and drug trafficking, the news website Le Desk said, citing an authorised source within the DGSN.

Described as a "big fish" in drug trafficking, the 33-year-old suspect is allegedly involved in several heroin and cocaine trafficking operations between France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

His name reappeared recently as a sponsor in an anti-drug police operation in the Orleans region, near Paris, where he is originally from, Moroccan media reported.

In 2018, this man had been involved in a case of importing 200 kilos of cocaine in the port of Le Havre (north-west).

He had reappeared in 2019 in a story about importing drugs to Grenoble (south-east) by "go fast" from the Maghreb via Spain.

On the run, he was then arrested in Villeurbanne, near Lyon, in June 2020. His trail had since been lost.

Following the usual procedure, the Moroccan justice system should soon decide on his extradition.

Last October, one of the big French drug barons, Sophiane Hambli, aged 46 and of Algerian origin, was arrested in a clinic in Tangiers (northern Morocco).