Algeria seizes 8 tonnes of cannabis smuggled from Morocco

Algiers (AFP) - Algerian security forces have seized more than eight tonnes of cannabis in the port city of Oran, smuggled from neighbouring Morocco, and arrested six traffickers, the police said Thursday.

Those arrested were all Algerian, between 30 and 45 years old, with one of them considered the "baron," police chief Salah Nouasri said, adding that the quantity seized was a record for Algeria's second-largest city.

The network was busted after two months of investigations, Nouasri explained.

Morocco is one of the world's top cannabis producers and Europe's main source.

"These traffickers were supplied from the country's western borders, and were to send the prohibited goods to the southern region, then to Libya, the Middle East and Europe," the police chief said.

Besides the cannabis, seven vehicles and 15 mobile phones were seized from a warehouse in Sid Benyebka, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) east of Oran.