Tags : Morocco, M118, Mohamed Bellahrach,
This Moroccan national is suspected of infiltrating the European Parliament and being involved in a trafficking of confidential documents in France.
Stéphane Sellami
His legend could fit into John le Carré novels, so discreet and persuasive that he managed to deceive everyone for years. In his invented biography, he is Mohamed Bellahrach, born on June 7, 1964, in Nador, a coastal city in northeastern Morocco, near the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Within the General Directorate of Studies and Documentation (DGED), Morocco’s external intelligence and counter-espionage service, he is registered under the code name M118. This “number” is at the heart of the political scandal that has shaken the European Parliament in Brussels since the end of last year. But that’s not all.
On December 9, 2022, several suspects, including Greek Socialist Eva Kaili, 44, one of the vice-presidents of the European Parliament, and former Italian Socialist MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, 67, were arrested as part of an investigation into corruption suspicions. The police seized 1.5 million euros in cash during searches.
“Membership in a criminal organization,” “money laundering,” and “corruption”
Charged with “membership in a criminal organization,” “money laundering,” and “corruption,” Panzeri agreed to cooperate with Belgian justice in exchange for a negotiated prison sentence.
After failing to be re-elected to the European Parliament in 2019, the former co-chair of the Morocco-European Union joint committee allegedly established ties with the DGED, headed by Mohamed Yassine Mansour, a schoolmate of King Mohamed VI.
It was around this time that the legend of Mohamed Bellahrach—also identified as Bellarache, Belahrech, or Belareh—surfaced. He is described by the Belgian daily Le Soir as the “handler” of a Moroccan diplomat nicknamed “the Giant,” who was in contact with Panzeri, alias “the Brain.”
Asked about the actions of the Moroccan spy, Panzeri’s lawyer, Laurent Kennes, stated that “he is mentioned at the beginning of this investigation” but that he “has not further identified this M118.” “I focused on defending my client,” he deflected.
The “James Bond of Nador”
The accusations of corruption and interference in European affairs have been rejected by Rabat. One of Morocco’s lawyers, Olivier Baratelli, did not respond to requests for comment.
The methods of the “James Bond of Nador” were already highlighted in Spain in 2013. M118 is suspected of having directed agents infiltrating mosques at that time. This network was dismantled two years later.
At the beginning of 2016, the Moroccan spy was in France. The country had just suffered a series of deadly attacks, and the risk of new terrorist attacks was very high. A police captain, Charles D., stationed at Orly Airport (Val-de-Marne), then slipped dozens of S files (for “threat to state security”) into the hands of Driss A., the Franco-Moroccan head of a private security company, responsible for monitoring passengers and luggage.
Between 100 and 200 S files were transmitted to a foreign power
These confidential documents on Moroccan nationals mostly linked to Islamist movements were then handed over to M118. Thus, within a year, between 100 and 200 S files were transmitted to a foreign power, illegally. The travels of high-ranking Algerian officials and a sports agent were reported to Moroccan authorities through the same channel. All this in exchange for three trips to Morocco at the king’s expense, including hotel and flights, and a few thousand euros paid to the unscrupulous police officer.
“This is consistent with the methods of Mohamed VI’s spies,” analyzes an intelligence expert. “It’s important to know that the king’s services are very intrusive wherever there is a large Moroccan community. Morocco is a major player in espionage. And those they send to France are far from being fools.”
For lawyer Blandine Russo, her client, Charles D.—held in pre-trial detention for eight months and dismissed from the police force—is “a puppet, someone a bit weak-minded, easy to manipulate, convinced he was a hero, and who truly believed he was acting in France’s superior interest and fighting against terrorists.”
The case, revealed by Le Point, is under investigation in Créteil. The magistrate in charge of the case is trying to establish the true identity of the secret agent based in Rabat, whose balding head and smiling, mustached face—seen in one of the only two photos available to French justice—betray a certain joviality.
Holder of a French resident card
M118 is not unknown to French services. The man is the subject of an S file for the surveillance of a “foreign agent.” He holds a French resident card, issued by the Bas-Rhin prefecture on December 21, 2010, and valid for ten years. He obtained this residence permit as the “partner of a French woman,” Nathalie Évelyne B.
To obtain the document, M118 provided his Moroccan passport and an electricity bill confirming an address in the commune of Bischheim, north of Strasbourg.
On February 13, 2018, an arrest warrant was issued against him: the shadowy man was accused of “corruption” and “receiving property obtained from the violation of professional secrecy.” A month later, investigators from the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) arrived at his declared Alsatian residence.
The occupant, a certain Fouad D., explained to them that “Mr. Mohamed Bellahrach is a friend” and that they should call “the prefecture for more information.” The host and his elusive guest reportedly met “in the 1980s” when M118 was “a student in Strasbourg.” Fouad D. conceded that he is “an agent of the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior” and that they had seen each other at the “Casablanca International Book Fair.”
The police managed to get the mysterious spy to contact them on his mobile. However, they did not record his phone number. After a quick inspection of the premises, they returned to Paris, convinced that Mohamed Bellahrach had never lived at that address. But they missed the fact that Fouad D. was the manager of a real estate company overseeing the construction of the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg. A project partly financed by the Moroccan kingdom. When questioned, Fouad D. replied that he had “no comment.”
Investigations have established that M118 had spoken with the head of the Orly PAF (Border Police), Jacques Guyomarc’h, whose partner was none other than the head of the IGPN. During his hearing as a witness by the investigating judge, this senior police officer claimed to have received Mohamed Bellahrach in his office in June 2016, thinking he was “a fellow commissioner” visiting Paris, and to have exchanged “banalities for fifteen to twenty minutes.”
The spy, reported across Europe, is to be tried for trafficking S files. M118 is expected on November 9 at 1:30 pm by the judges of the 9th chamber of the Créteil judicial court.
Le Journal du Dimanche, 05/03/2023
#Maroc #ParlementEuropéen #Corruption #Qatargate #Marocgate #M118 #Bellahrach #DGED
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