Mohamed Saleh Tamek, the general delegate for prison administration and reintegration, disclosed a foiled attempt to bring drugs into one of Morocco’s prisons.[1] He spoke during a debate on his department’s budget before the House of Representatives’ justice committee on Wednesday.[1] The prisoner the delivery was meant for, the drone and all the people behind the attempt were caught, Tamek said.[2] He credited the vigilance of prison staff.[2]

The drone was small and shaped like a small bird, he said.[3] It reached the bars of a cell window carrying hashish.[4] The competent services then intercepted the attempt and seized the drone.[1] The intervention prevented the attempt from succeeding, Tamek said.[1] The security intervention also caught the targeted prisoner and the people who planned and carried out the operation.[3]

Tamek called drug smuggling into prisons a “very terrible” thing.[1] He said one such case had been recorded.[2] He put the number of drug “barons” in Moroccan prisons at between 800 and 1,000.[2] They are not allowed to keep telephones in their cells, unlike other prisoners, he said.[2]

The account, carried by several Moroccan outlets, presents the drone as a new technique used by trafficking networks to get past prison security.[5]