The importance of the Belliraj network dismantled in Morocco

By Olivier Guitta

One month after the spectacular dismantling of what is called the"Belliraj" network in Morocco, the details and implications of this event are coming out little by little. The Croissant has compiled a full dossier, drawing on fifty open source articles. The full dossier is available to subscribers.

Here is an excerpt:

About 35 suspects were arrested on February 18. They lived in Morocco: Casablanca, Rabat, Fez, Marrakech, Kenitra, Tangiers, Nador, Oujda. There are also Moroccans living in Belgium; those individuals were key in the traffic of arms seized by the police. About 10 of the 35 suspects arrested in Morocco were allegedly known in Belgium, in the organized crime circle. They come from all social classes, but most of them are from middle to upper classes: a doctor of pharmacy, a police captain, storekeepers, the head of a telecommunications company, a hotel manager, teachers. Nothing indicates that they are poor, or that they decided to take revenge on their country.

The Belliraj network was allegedly linked to Islamist leaders: six political leaders from the authorized Islamist parties were arrested and are behind bars; Amongst them, Mustapha Moatassim, leader of the al-Badil al-Hadari (civilized Alternative) party. His party, which had little clout on the political scene, was dissolved on 2/20/08. Like Belliraj, Moatassim allegedly had maintained in the past relations with Shiite circles that were Iranian or close to Hezbollah. Indeed, Abdellah Sriti, the correspondent in Morocco of Lebanese Hezbollah's TV station Al Manar was also arrested. And interestingly enough, among the arrested is also Alaa Badella Maa El Ainin, a member of the PJD (Justice and Development Party), the main Islamist party in Morocco and a candidate running in the legislative elections last September.

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