A MAN suspected of involvement in Britain's biggest cash robbery was jailed for eight months by a Moroccan court yesterday for possessing drugs and assaulting police officers.
Britons Lee Murray and Paul Allen, who were arrested in a shopping mall in Rabat in June, were also fined 10,000 dirhams (£600).
The court ordered them to pay 303,100 dirhams (£18,000) to Moroccan customs related to drug possession. They must remain behind bars until the fine is paid, even though they have already served the jail terms.
Murray, 26, a kick boxer, arrived in Morocco shortly after the £53m armed hold-up of a Securitas cash depot in Tonbridge, Kent, in February last year. He was arrested by Moroccan security forces with Allen and two other Britons in June. They were all charged with criminal gang membership and illegal possession of cocaine and foreign currency, but the other three are not believed to be linked to the Securitas case.
British authorities have begun extradition proceedings against Murray in connection with the Securitas raid. His father is a Moroccan who emigrated to Britain.
Officials said police discovered small amounts of cocaine when they raided a villa in the wealthy Rabat suburb of Souissi where Murray was living with the men who acted as his bodyguards.
Murray had pleaded not guilty to drug possession and assaulting the police officers who arrested him.
"The decision was unexpected and is 100% satisfying," said Murray's lawyer Abdullah Benlemhidi al-Issaoui.
The lawyer said he expected a decision soon on the extradition by Morocco's Supreme Court. It is not known if Murray will be held in custody pending the extradition case.
Seven men and four women have now been charged in connection with the Securitas robbery. It was the world's largest known cash theft in peacetime, eclipsed only by the looting of Iraq's central bank during the US-led invasion in April 2003.
The gang kidnapped depot manager Colin Dixon, 51, and held his wife Lynn, 45, and son Craig, then aged eight, hostage. Police have recovered just over £20m but they are convinced that most of the missing £30m is still in the UK.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article