Mounir Erramach, a prominent figure in Morocco's drug underworld, was released from prison on Thursday after serving a 21-year sentence. Erramach was incarcerated at El Arajat prison. Mounir Erramach, born in Ceuta in 1974, quickly ascended through the ranks of the drug trade to become the head of a powerful network in northern Morocco, which included judges and high-ranking members of the security forces. His arrest on August 9, 2003, marked the end of his illicit activities. Erramach began his career as a young man, smuggling cigarettes between Ceuta and northern Moroccan towns. During this period, he served a 10-month prison sentence for assaulting a competitor—a crucial initiation before advancing to the more lucrative hashish trade. With a helping hand from a relative, he joined the network of the notorious drug baron Ahmed Bounekoub, known as Eddib. Before his arrest in 1996 during the «Clean-up» campaign launched by Interior Minister Driss Basri, Eddib reigned as the undisputed king of drug trafficking between northern Morocco and southern Spain. Eddib's incarceration paved the way for a new generation of traffickers to rise. Erramach, along with Mohamed Taïeb El Ouazzani, known as El Nene—a fellow Ceuta native who was murdered by unknown assailants in August 2014 at a seaside resort in Tétouan—became leaders of this new wave. Unlike their predecessors, this new generation didn't shy away from the spotlight, often filming their operations and broadcasting them. 22 high-ranking officials corrupted by Erramach After reclaiming part of Eddib's territory, Mounir Erramach expanded his illegal activities to include hard drugs. With the support of high-ranking security officers, he operated with impunity. Even when arrested in 2001 for drug trafficking, he quickly secured his release by paying 20 million dirhams to a former senior officer of the General Directorate for National Security (DGSN) in Tangier. Beyond corrupt police officers, Erramach used his wealth to buy the loyalty of other Moroccan state officials within the security, military, judicial, and customs sectors. The dismantling of his network in August 2003 exposed the vast extent of his corrupt influence. Under Erramach's command were two deputies to the King's Attorney General, three presidents of the Criminal Division of the Tétouan Court of Appeal, the Tangier Prefect of Police, the Director of Regional Security, the Commander of the Royal Armed Forces in the Northern Region, a Captain of the Royal Gendarmerie, a Regional Director of the Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance (DGST), and police commissioners across the Northern Region. In total, 22 high-ranking officials were arrested alongside Erramach. In 2004, the Moroccan courts sentenced him to 20 years in prison, while Eddib received only 10 years. A year after Erramach's conviction, the Spanish police launched «Operation Leila», which uncovered his connections in neighboring Spain, particularly in money laundering operations in Andalusia. Three weeks before Mounir Erramach's arrest on August 9, 2003—on July 18—King Mohammed VI appointed General Hamidou Laanigri as the new head of the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN), replacing Hafid Benhachem, who had held the position since 1997.
