Spy Network Dismantled in Tlemcen?

The announcement seems absurd and implausible. But when it is picked up by major international media, such as Le Figaro and TV5 Monde, and announced pompously by the official news agency APS, it cannot be ignored or dismissed.

By Hichem ABOUD

“The investigating judge at the Tlemcen court ordered, on Sunday, September 1, the provisional detention of seven individuals, including four Moroccans, following the recent dismantling of a spy and intelligence network aimed at undermining state security,” announced the prosecution of this border city with Morocco, as cited by the government news agency APS.

According to the same source, “the individuals identified by the investigation are under criminal accusations of espionage with a foreign country or one of its agents,” for “espionage crimes” as well as for “illegal entry into the territory for three of the Moroccan nationals.”

So far, there is no indication of the foreign country behind these “spies.” Morocco is not mentioned or implicated, even though four of its nationals are part of the network. The main suspect is a Moroccan, and he is said to have entered Algeria illegally despite the tightly closed land borders. Nothing is known about him except the initials of his first and last names “Z.M.” It seems as if there is hesitation to name him fully and identify the foreign party behind him. However, his arrest triggered the neutralization of six other members of the network. This is serious.

It is hard to believe such information as long as the basic principles of espionage are not respected by Moroccan services, which were recently presented as formidable. Services that managed to infiltrate the most secure presidential palaces, like the Élysée, cannot afford to be amateurish by sending an entire squadron of pirates into the enemy’s hands.

Seven spies arrested at once is unprecedented in the history of global espionage. In espionage, even two elements are not put together on the same objective. Isolation is the primary rule. Among spies, they should never know each other. Even at the highest levels of intelligence services, everything is coded. Outside the case officer, no one else is authorized to know the identity of the spy, his objective, or his area of operation.

A case officer directing six spies on the same objective who know each other is elementary amateurism. The scenario seems to be written by an amateur who knows nothing about espionage.

And why not name the party managing this network? Since they are Moroccan nationals and some entered illegally, certainly from Morocco, they cannot be spies on the payroll of Botswana or Nicaragua.

It is difficult to understand the Algerian security authorities’ refusal to blacklist Moroccan services. However, the president of the republic himself did not hesitate to specifically accuse Morocco of orchestrating the forest fires in Kabylie in 2021. Algerian authorities also did not hesitate for a time to accuse Morocco of spying on senior Algerian officials through Pegasus.

It is hard to believe that Moroccan secret services, which were called in as reinforcements by Qatar to secure the 2022 World Cup and by France to participate in securing the Paris 2024 Olympics, have reached such a low level of amateurism. From Pegasus, the formidable in massive infiltration, the Moroccans seem to have stepped lightly into the imagination of a mediocre officer tasked with writing a scenario to call for popular mobilization to save the nation and all that. And then, what could Moroccan secret services be looking for in Tlemcen? Voter lists or ballots to be stolen to disrupt next week’s presidential election? So far, nothing is known about the objectives of this new type of espionage network. Let’s wait for the coming days; perhaps a Dahdouh will come to tell us one of those stories that only Nacer El-Djen’s services know how to concoct.