Algeria drowning in hashish and cocaine, says PM

The influx of drugs into Algeria is “an ingratitude for the future of the Maghrebins,” the Algerian Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, warned yesterday.

Speaking at the opening session for the National Rally for Democracy (RND), which he heads, Ouyahia said that “drowning Algeria with hashish and cocaine is an attack against the Algerian people and an attempt to poison the Algerian youth as well as Algeria’s development”.

Although Ouyahia did not accuse a specific country, local media sources reported that he meant to hold Morocco responsible for “laundering drug money via its banks in the African continent”.

The RND Secretary General stressed that Morocco had been “laundering cannabis money” through banks into Africa, adding that “the Moroccan banks are being used to launder the revenues obtained from the sale of hashish”.

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The Algerian authorities have repeatedly accused Morocco of continuing to drown the country with “cannabis”, but Rabat denies the accusations.

On 20 October Ouyahia also accused Morocco of “laundering drug money in Sub-Saharan Africa”.

The Moroccan authorities recently announced that it was intensifying the presence of its border security guards to prevent the inflow of drugs from abroad and reduce the cultivation of cannabis in the area, which is widespread across the north of the country.