Rabat - Moroccan authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle a record 20 tons of cannabis into the Netherlands, local media reported on Tuesday.
The official MAP news agency said the haul was discovered on Sunday behind pallets of tomato boxes in a trailer registered in France during routine checks at Tangiers port, Morocco's gateway to Europe.
The truck driver, a Moroccan, was arrested along with two guards from a factory where the cannabis was loaded. An intermediary was also arrested, MAP said. It did not identify the detainees.
Almost 70 percent of the cannabis circulating in Europe comes from Morocco. In recent years, the North African country has also become an alternative route to Europe for hard drugs, such as cocaine, as mainly Colombian drug cartels seek to avoid high surveillance in European ports.
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Spanish veterinary services in the southern port of Algeciras last week discovered 400kg of cocaine hidden in a Moroccan truck carrying frozen fish to Europe. The drug had a street value of $44-million (about R300-million).
In addition to trucks, smugglers use high-speed boats to take drugs to Spanish shores, which lie less than 16km north of Morocco, across the Strait of Gibraltar.
The biggest haul of cannabis before Sunday's catch was of 19 tons about two years ago.
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