Drug and cigarette trafficking, smuggling, counterfeiting, currency and money laundering… The Customs and Indirect Tax Administration (ADII) has made public the results of its seizures and operations carried out during the year 2022.
According to the 2022 activity report of the Customs administration, seizures of cigarettes increased from 760,000 units in 2021 to 19 million in 2022, in addition to seizures of 3 tons of cannabis, 2 tons of ground tobacco, 524 kilograms of tobacco in leaf and 6,356 electronic cigarettes.
Throughout the year, Customs worked to strengthen its surveillance and border control system and to boost cooperation with its partners at national and international level.
This resulted in the seizure of large quantities of narcotics during the year, with seizures amounting to 17 tons of cannabis resin, 85.5 kg of hard drugs, 2,023,548 units of psychotropic tablets and 1 .2 tons of “Maassel” (syrupy tobacco used in shisha).
With regard to the fight against counterfeiting, the application of the suspension measures made it possible to carry out 90 cases relating to seizures having concerned textile articles, cosmetic products, in addition to smartphones and spare parts of motor vehicles. Indeed, 1,821,886 counterfeit items were seized in 2022 compared to 740,120 in 2021, for a total value of 21.2 MDH.
In addition, the number of requests for suspension of release for free circulation of goods suspected of infringing their trademarks, submitted by economic operators to customs, reached 682 requests processed by the Administration compared to 619 in 2021.
Last year was also marked by the introduction of a new system for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which comes on top of the law in force and which establishes the obligation to declare, entering or leaving the national territory, commercial paper, means of payment and financial instruments whose amount is equal to or greater than the equivalent of 100,000 dirhams.
Regarding the fight against currency trafficking, the control of travelers through the various border points has made it possible to seize currencies of around 50 MDH. In addition, the total amount in foreign currency declared by travelers reached 1.5 billion dirhams against 790 million dirhams in 2021.
The control operations of the customs services, for their part, resulted in the seizure, this year, of 133 tons of prohibited bags and the dismantling of several clandestine workshops for the manufacture of plastic bags.
From an environmental and natural heritage protection point of view, Customs also plays a decisive role in implementing the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which protects more than 38,000 species worldwide.
The Moroccan customs services have thus announced that they have seized 8 falcons, 10 goldfinches, as well as 845 kg of sea cucumbers.
The same source indicates that the customs services in charge of a posteriori control carried out 796 control missions in 2022, against 761 in 2021. These controls made it possible to identify infringements relating to an overall amount of duties and taxes evaded from the order of 854 MDH against 563 MDH in 2021, i.e. an increase of 52% and around 19 MDH in fines collected.