France launched the first Moroccan satellite in November 2017. This satellite was built by France under the name of EO Sat1, later called Mohammed VI-A. The satellite was launched in November 2017. The construction of the first Moroccan satellite is surrounded by much secrecy. The contract was signed in 2013 after the then French President François Hollande visited Morocco in April this year. The cost of the satellite is estimated at 500 million dollars.

Before the official launch, no Moroccan official had commented on the satellite until the question was put by the press to the Moroccan Ambassador to the European Union, Ahmed Réda Chami, on 26 October 2017. He said: “As Minister of Industry, I worked with a French company on this project in 2009–2010. He had pointed out that it was an observation satellite that was not necessarily used for military purposes. In this way, we can see what is going on in our territory, especially with regard to the weather and its impact on the agriculture, and to follow the smugglers on our coasts”.

The Moroccan activist in the United States Mohamed Hicham Radoui (1) thinks differently, according to him Morocco will use this satellite to track drug transports in which the King of Morocco is involved. In a December 2017 live video on his Facebook page and various YouTube channels, he combines the disappearance of a large drug shipment in Europe with the King of Morocco’s decision to buy a satellite. In November 2017, a failed attack was carried out in Marrakech on a Dutch-Moroccan rich criminal and his brother, who has also made a name for himself in the drug world. According to Mohamed Hicham, behind the scenes of this drug network stands King Mohammed VI’s advisor, Fouad Ali El Himma, and then his superior, the King of Morocco himself.

According to Mohamed Hicham, the reason for this failed liquidation is the disappearance of a shipment with cocaine worth 4 billion dollars from the port of Antwerp. Several gangs were involved in this drug deal, the King of Morocco also had his own investment in this drug shipment, but he is not easy to associate with it, says Mohamed Hicham. He accuses: “The disappearance of this cocaine shipment from the port of Antwerp was a great setback for the King of Morocco. That’s why he wants to prevent it from happening again. A Moroccan satellite offers a good solution for keeping an eye on drug transport.

Mohamed Hicham is not the first Moroccan to accuse King Mohammed VI of involvement in drug trafficking. Mustapha Elamiri (2), a former non-commissioned officer of the Moroccan gendarmerie (military police), worked for this force in various regions of Morocco for 24 years. In videos from last year (2018) on his own YouTube channel, Mustapha Elamiri tells us that during his work as a traffic agent at various roadblocks in Morocco, his superiors ordered him to pass them on when certain trucks pass the roadblock. In addition to informing on the information that the trucks were passing by, they were not allowed to do anything else, he says. According to this old gendarme, these trucks were loaded with drugs from the King of Morocco.

Another Moroccan official who accuses the Moroccan monarch of drug trafficking is Noureddine Boufarra (3), a former policeman of the Moroccan criminal police “recherche”. According to him, King Mohammed VI runs his own drug trade through intermediaries and receives a share of the profits of all major drug shipments reaching Europe.

The Moroccan press tells the official story about the purpose of the Moroccan satellite, namely that it is used in the fight against illegal immigration and smuggling, in the persecution of jihadist groups operating in the Sahel such as AQIM (Al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb) and the pirates dominating the Gulf of Guinea.

(1) Mohamed Hicham Radoui, born 1977 in Casablanca. He lived in several Moroccan cities because his father worked as a senior official for a Moroccan ministry. He studied tourism in Morocco and worked as a director of an officers’ mess in a country in the Middle East. Early on he became interested in Moroccan politics and then in the politics of the world. This was one of the reasons why he realized that his children in the Middle East would not have a good future because this region is very unstable. That is why he and his children emigrated to the United States.

(2) Mustapha Elamiri reports on his YouTube channel that he has taken early retirement alter 24 years of service with the Moroccan gendarmerie. He left Morocco to live in the United States and criticized the Moroccan regime from there. In a series of videos on YouTube, which he called Mémoire d’un gendarme, he talks about his experiences with the Moroccan military police.

(3) Noureddine Boufarra, worked for the Moroccan judicial police. He was kidnapped, abused in Morocco and escaped an assassination attempt. He has applied for asylum in a European country.

Source:Amazigh Informatie Centrum