La Policía de Marruecos arresta a un grupo de islamistas por extorsionar a comerciantes en Fez

The Moroccan police today dismantled a criminal network composed of seven people, three of them radical Islamists, for imposing, under blackmail and threats, a tax on traders in the city of Fez (centre) to allow them to carry out their activity. 

The General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) explains in a statement that the seven people were arrested simultaneously in an operation carried out by a special force of the interior intelligence services, in coordination with the judicial police. 

The note adds that the members of this group subjected traders in different neighbourhoods of Fez to blackmail and threats, so that they would only allow them to carry out their commercial activity if they paid them regular sums of money. 

Some jihadist currents consider other Muslims to be apostates and give themselves the right to appropriate their property as a kind of booty. In jihadist terminology this is known as "fei". 

The security services seized a large quantity of bladed weapons during the operation, according to the statement, as well as fake administrative stamps and a quantity of money allegedly obtained through their criminal activity. 

The detainees were placed in police custody at the disposal of the judicial investigation, supervised by the competent Public Prosecutor's Office, to investigate the circumstances of this case, the note concludes. 

The Prosecutor's Office also wants to investigate the links between the extremist ideology of some of the detainees and the blackmail practices committed against the victims in order to appropriate their money.