The Directorate General of National Security (DGSN) (DGSN) has reported in its annual report a 30.22% drop in crimes recorded in 2022, noting that only 6.59% of these cases are violent crimes.
The report also detailed how the police department has started implementing the periodic program of the 2022-2026 Security Strategy, which focuses on strengthening crime fighting structures, developing scientific and technical police’s laboratories and systematically using mechanisms of criminal investigation and technical support in different investigations.
This strategy also aims to enshrine the dimension of human rights in the police function, including the procedures of custody and surveillance in places of detention, in addition to the consolidation of coordination and cooperation with the services of the Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance (DGST) on very complex cases, stresses the DGSN in its 2022 report.
The report, which gives detailed data on the number of criminal cases recorded in Morocco and the rate of their resolution, the results of the struggle against drug trafficking as well as the struggle against illegal migration, also focused on the department efforts in the fight against terrorism, extremism and apology for terrorist acts, indicating that the BNPJ has referred 20 individuals to the prosecutor’s office, recording a decline of 23% compared to the previous year, not counting the terrorist cells dismantled by the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) under the DGST.
The current year has also been marked by the full resumption of international security cooperation operations, after the lifting of preventive measures imposed because of the health pandemic, which has allowed to regain the advanced level of operational cooperation and technical assistance. In this regard, the Pole of International Police Cooperation has processed 5,800 cases and requests for information, an increase of 24% compared to 2021 and over 40% compared to 2020.
The year 2022 has also seen the effective participation of the services of the National Security in the execution of five multiparty security operations in coordination with the General Secretariat of Interpol, dealing mainly with the fight against trafficking in pharmaceuticals and their sale via communication platforms and the illegal trade of artistic and cultural works, animals and wild plants, as well as another joint operation aimed at combating the reckless, irrational or criminal management of medical waste, in addition to the deployment of two operations of controlled delivery of drugs with the assistance of the Italian authorities as part of the opening to new partners after the cooperation in this field was limited to France and Spain during the past year.
In this context of international cooperation, the year 2022 was marked by the conclusion of numerous agreements and partnerships with police institutions in foreign countries, which resulted in the strengthening of the strategic security partnership with law enforcement agencies in the United States, particularly in terms of exchange of expertise, technical assistance and advanced training in various security fields, which was manifested by an exchange of visits between Moroccan and American security officials, the strengthening of training sessions and the diversification of operational cooperation, and which allowed the arrest by the services of the National Security of three foreign nationals wanted for serious crimes by the American judicial authorities.
In the same context, the DGSN has concluded a “letter of intent” with the Director of the Netherlands Police to raise the level of bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the security field and a framework agreement with the German Federal Police on various areas of security.
The DGSN has also worked to strengthen cooperation and coordination in security matters with sisterly and neighboring countries, especially the Kingdom of Spain, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and the police of Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), among others.
At the operational level, the National Central Bureau (Interpol Rabat) has taken measures to execute 143 international letters rogatory and has issued 106 international arrest warrants for wanted persons.
These international arrest warrants issued by the Moroccan judicial authorities have resulted in the arrest of 119 internationally wanted individuals, including 71 Moroccan citizens arrested abroad.
The national central office has also issued 3362 search notices at the national level following the red notices issued by Interpol and the arrest warrants issued by the competent authorities in other countries.
It has also issued 380 search notices from the police services of Arab countries and issued 2169 warrants to terminate international searches and 347 warrants to terminate search notices issued at the Arab level.
Within the framework of the promotion of modern science in the service of justice and the crowning of the preservation of the quality certification (ISO / IEC 17025) by the national laboratory of the scientific and technical police under the DGSN for the 5th year, the General Directorate of National Security has continued to invest in the development of structures and mechanisms of the scientific and technical police, which allowed it to contribute to the consolidation of the fair trial based on scientific evidence, and to reach record levels in the rate of repression by helping to solve complex crimes, while providing great support to officers and agents of judicial police at the level of processing evidence at crime scenes or during criminal investigations.
In terms of statistics and numerical indicators, the technical services of the Institute of Forensic Sciences of the National Security have carried out 576 forensic examinations on falsified documents, an increase of 5%, as well as 5,533 forensic examinations on the digital contents of 18,050 electronic media, an increase of 16%, and 201 ballistic examinations carried out on 94 firearms and 7,458 ammunition and projectiles, an increase of 10% compared to the previous year.
As for the Forensic Laboratory of Casablanca, it received 16,762 requests for expertise during the current year and processed 13,454 requests for analysis of DNA samples, an increase of about 31% compared to the previous year. The same laboratory also received 1134 requests for expertise in the field of forensic chemistry, while the service of drugs and forensic toxicology has completed the necessary scientific expertise in 1816 cases related to narcotics and psychotropic substances … etc.