ISIS-Affiliated Terrorist Cell Operating in Tangier Smashed (BCIJ)

05 October 2020 Printable Version

Rabat - The Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) dismantled, on Monday morning on the basis of information provided by the Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance, an ISIS-affiliated terrorist cell operating in the city of Tangier and composed of four individuals aged 23 to 26, within the framework of the continuous efforts to fight the risks of violent extremism and neutralize the terrorist threats which threaten the security and the safety of citizens.

According to a statement from the BCIJ, members of the rapid intervention group, which began intervention and irruption operations simultaneously in four sites in the "El Aouama" neighborhood in Tangier, were forced to fire warning bullets as a precaution, making it possible to avoid the terrorist threat and to arrest the main suspect and three members of this cell.

The search operation and cartography carried out by the BCIJ officers and crime scene experts in the sites of intervention enabled the seizure of knives, electronic equipment and devices which will undergo the necessary expertise by the laboratory of analyzing traces and digital evidence, the statement said.

According to the preliminary investigation, members of the terrorist cell, who were unable to join the "ISIS" camps in the Sahel region south of the Sahara, have decided to join dangerous and imminent terrorist projects that aim to destabilize the security and stability of the Kingdom through terrorist methods inspired by the operations that the organization was carrying out on the Syrian-Iraqi scene.

Search and investigations as well as security monitoring operations have revealed a video documenting an allegiance made by the emir of this terrorist cell to the so-called current emir of ISIS, vowing to comply with orders and guidelines serving the agenda of this terrorist organization, the same source said.

The site of the video recording of this "allegiance" was identified near the Beni Mekada neighborhood in Tangier, noted the BCIJ, underlining the existence on the premises of a mural painting similar to ISIS standard.

This operation confirms the ongoing terrorist threats which threaten the security of the Kingdom and the stubbornness of the extremists imbued with the "takfirist" ideology, affiliated with ISIS organization to carry out terrorist operations aimed at seriously undermining the security of people and public order.

The suspects were remanded in custody for the preliminary investigation, led under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor's office in charge of terrorism cases, with a view to uncovering all their terrorist plans and projects and to determine all the ramifications and possible links of this terrorist cell.