RABAT, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan authorities announced on Wednesday that they have seized some 12.5 tons of cannabis in the Northeastern city of Nador.
The seizure of this amount of the banned substance came after police busted an international drug smuggling network, the police said in a statement.
During the operation, six dealers aged between 20 and 57 were arrested, the statement added.
The police raided three houses in the rural Ammejjaou area, used by the dealers as storage sites and seized 19 vehicles, including three vans wherein drugs and nearly 400,000 dollars were found.
They also seized an inflatable boat used in international drug trafficking, electronic marine navigation equipment, high-speed boat engines and a hunting rifle with 56 bullets.
Despite efforts to crack down on cannabis farming in the last decade, Morocco remains the world's largest cannabis resin harvester.
According to the 2016 report by the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, Morocco ranks first among 129 cannabis producing countries throughout the period from 2009 to 2014, followed by Afghanistan, Lebanon, India and Pakistan.
