Agadir – Head of the National Security Forensic Sciences Institute in Morocco, Taoufik Sayerh, announced that over the past three years, Moroccan security services have confiscated more than four million psychotropic tablets, most of which were smuggled into the country from neighboring states.
In remarks at the 5th International Symposium of Directors of Forensic Drug Analysis Laboratories, Sayerh stressed that drug consumption and addiction is a major public health challenge in Morocco.
He said that combating drug trafficking remains a national priority, emphasizing on the need for coordinated efforts at both the national and international levels against psychotropic drug trafficking.
“Consumption and drug addiction are recognized as a major public health problem in Morocco, and the fight against drug trafficking is a national priority,” he said.
According to the DGSN, Morocco seized more than 1.6 million psychotropic tablets in 2025 alone, marking a 10% increase compared to 2024. This rise, he explained, reflects intensified law-enforcement operations.
Sayerh warned that, with the emergence of new psychoactive substances, production networks are becoming more sophisticated, transit routes more complex, and younger people normalizing consuming drugs at higher rates.
“The trafficking now constitutes one of the worst scourges threatening public health and negatively impacting national economies, security, and public order, and consequently hindering national development,” he added.
He further explained that drug trafficking is often intertwined with the activities of non-state actors, including terrorist and separatist groups, which rely on profits from illicit drug networks to finance operations and fuel regional instability.
This reality reinforces the urgent need for a multidimensional response combining security enforcement, scientific expertise, international cooperation, and public-health-oriented policies.
Morocco has adopted an integrated national strategy aligned with relevant United Nations resolutions, focusing on reducing supply, preventing drug use and addiction and dismantling trafficking networks.
Morocco joined the Global Coalition Against Synthetic Drug Threats in 2023, a US initiative aimed at coordinating international responses to the rapid spread of synthetic drugs.
The country also regularly reinforces its control over passenger and goods networks, particularly at ports and airports, to prevent the smuggling of psychotropic substances.
