In Marrakech, the tourist police have existed since January 1998 — and in 2019 they were still arresting twelve fake guides a day

Nadia Cherifi — Alger, Algérie — 2026-09-21

Note on method. This investigation rests on three sets of documents: twenty-one videos published on YouTube, which we downloaded, listened to and transcribed in full; the official warnings that four foreign states address to their own nationals; and the publications of the Moroccan institutions themselves. We begin by saying what this investigation does NOT say — because an investigation that concedes nothing is worth nothing.

⛔ Three things we will not write

An investigation of this kind is judged by what it refuses to write. So here, before anything else, are three limits we impose on ourselves — and they cost us.

First, we will not write that Moroccans are thieves. This is not a stylistic precaution. It is false, it would be an insult to an entire people, and it would destroy at a single stroke the credibility of everything that follows. A Moroccan content creator says it better than we do, and we will quote him further down in this investigation.

Second, we will not write that every tourist is fleeced in Marrakech. That is false too — and we know it because we did the work. Two of the videos we transcribed deliberately tested the most decried places: the airport, the square, the souks, a tannery. Their conclusion is written in black and white, and we will reproduce it as it stands. A café on a panoramic terrace over Jemaa el-Fna square, chosen precisely because it seemed the most expensive in the city, cost them seventy-four dirhams for two coffees and two bottles of water, with no service charge.

Third, we will not write that Morocco does nothing. That is false, and it is in fact the heart of this investigation. Morocco has been doing something for twenty-eight years.

And it is precisely because it is doing something that this investigation exists.

🏛️ The fact nobody looks at: the tourist police are twenty-eight years old

Let us start with a date, and it is Moroccan.

In January 1998, the Directorate General of National Security decided to create specialised squads, called tourist brigades. Nine were set up at first, in nine cities: Casablanca, Marrakech, Rabat-Salé, Agadir, Fès, Meknès, Tanger, Ouarzazate and Essaouira. The one in Marrakech was the first of its kind in Morocco, and it has been active since that date. By 2018, fourteen cities in the country had one.

This information is established by two independent sources. The first is an official DGSN conference held in Marrakech on 28 and 29 September 2018, as part of the second edition of the Open Days, on the theme of managing tourist activities, led by two commissioners: Driss Harchi, divisional commissioner at the Directorate of Public Security, and Bouabid Ounasse, commissioner at the Marrakech police prefecture. **The second is an article by the Moroccan outlet Le360, published on 19 December 2024 and presented as a press review of the magazine Jeune Afrique, which writes: “The tourist police have been active in Marrakech since January 1998. It was the first of its kind.”**

So much for its existence. Now for the means — and these figures are Moroccan too.

On 2 December 2025, a control and command room for the video surveillance system was inaugurated at the headquarters of the tourist police brigade of the Marrakech medina. The system, as declared to the official MAP agency by divisional commander Abdellatif Kardad, chief of staff of the urban police corps of the Marrakech police prefecture: two hundred and sixty-two cameras in total, including one hundred and seventy-six fixed, twenty-three mobile ones covering three hundred and sixty degrees, eighteen number-plate readers — and forty-five facial recognition cameras. It was the official portal of the Kingdom of Morocco that published it, on 2 December 2025.

Forty-five facial recognition cameras. In the Marrakech medina alone. Let us hold on to that number, because it alone tells us the scale of what is being watched.

And here is the figure that gives meaning to all the rest.

In 2019, the tourist police of Marrakech apprehended seven hundred and thirty-five fake guides — in the first two months of the year alone. The first half of 2018 had counted one thousand eight hundred. That is an average of twelve fake guide arrests a day.

Twelve a day. That figure is neither an estimate by an international organisation nor a compilation of online reviews: **it comes from a police source relayed by the Arabic-language Moroccan daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, and taken up by Le360 on 8 March 2019.**

Let us now measure what that means — and what it does not mean.

It does not mean that nothing is done. On the contrary: it means that something is done, massively, every day, for years. Twelve arrests a day means an administration that knows the phenomenon, counts it, prosecutes it, and devotes staff to it.

So it means something else, and it is more serious: the phenomenon holds. It holds despite a brigade created in 1998, despite two hundred and sixty-two cameras, despite forty-five facial recognition devices, despite a central service created at the Directorate General of National Security to monitor the activity of these brigades. When you arrest twelve people a day for years and the problem remains entire, it is no longer a problem of knowledge. It is a problem of choice.

🎥 2026: two of the three arrests came from a video, not from a complaint

Let us now look at what has happened in recent months, and above all at how the police were set in motion. That is where this investigation becomes hard to dispute.

On 13 March 2026, a video broadcast on social networks shows an individual harassing a foreign tourist in the medina of Marrakech. The Marrakech police prefecture responded: the man, known to the services for several criminal records, was identified, arrested and placed under judicial investigation under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor's office. The Moroccan outlet H24info reported the case on 16 March 2026.

On 20 July 2026, the police services of the medina district arrested a man already known for records linked to the illegal practice of tourist guiding. He is suspected of extorting money from and then physically assaulting a foreign tourist, after the latter refused to pay for an unauthorised guided tour. The outlet LeBrief states in black and white that the investigation was triggered by a video published by the victim himself.

And on 11 November 2025, the criminal division of the court of first instance of Marrakech delivered its verdict in a fraud case whose victim is a French tourist. A fake guide had led the young woman to a henna tattooist, who had demanded six hundred dirhams from her for a two-finger tattoo, on Jemaa el-Fna square. The fake guide was sentenced to two months in prison without suspension and a two-thousand-dirham fine; the tattooist to two months suspended and a one-thousand-dirham fine. **It is Aujourd'hui le Maroc that reports this judgment, on 14 November 2025.**

Let us pause on these three cases, because they say something that the statistics do not.

In the first and in the second, the police were not set in motion by a complaint: they were set in motion by a video. In the third, a judgment was needed — hence a complaint, proceedings, travel, and a foreign victim willing to be represented.

Yet the number of complaints filed by tourists in Marrakech is published nowhere. We looked for it: it does not exist. This is not a methodological detail — it is the void in the middle of the file. When public action is triggered because a video goes viral, it is not the effectiveness of the police that is being measured. It is the timidity of the victims.

And it must be said why that timidity is perfectly rational. A foreign victim who wants to file a complaint must stay on the spot, or come back, or pay a lawyer, for damage of a few hundred dirhams. The calculation is quickly made. It is exactly that calculation that the system exploits — and it is what explains why a twenty-euro scam ends, when it is filmed, in ten months in prison without suspension according to the commentators on the case: it is not the amount that is punished, it is the publicity.

📜 What four foreign states write to their own nationals

Let us move on to another register of evidence, and it is the hardest to dismiss. A state that warns its own citizens is defending no thesis: it is managing its responsibility. So here, word for word, is what France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada write to their nationals about Morocco.

France, first — and it is the most precise document in our entire corpus. On its “Morocco — Useful information” page, updated on 15 September 2026, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs writes this:

“Dans certaines zones touristiques (Marrakech), de fausses agences proposent aux voyageurs, souvent en le présentant comme une compensation d'une prestation qui n'a pas été au niveau de celle vendue, des offres de voyage à tarifs préférentiels ou des “contrats VIP” pour de futurs voyages. Ces fausses agences exigent un paiement initial ou une empreinte bancaire pour “vérifier la solvabilité” des clients et procèdent ensuite à des virements frauduleux depuis les comptes des clients.” (“In certain tourist areas (Marrakech), fake agencies offer travellers, often presenting it as compensation for a service that was not up to the standard of the one sold, travel offers at preferential rates or ‘VIP contracts’ for future trips. These fake agencies demand an initial payment or a bank card imprint in order to ‘check the solvency’ of clients, and then make fraudulent transfers from the clients' accounts.”)

Let us read that sentence slowly. It is not a blog, it is not a travel forum, it is not an anonymous testimony. It is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, which names Marrakech in parentheses and describes the method of operation, step by step, right up to the fraudulent transfer. On 15 September 2026 — six days ago.

The same ministry, on the same country, also writes:

“Les femmes a fortiori seules, sont souvent l'objet d'une attention intéressée et pressante pouvant aller jusqu'à des actes de harcèlement.” (“Women, especially when alone, are often the object of interested and pressing attention that can go as far as acts of harassment.”)

And, in the section devoted to ordinary crime, it again names Marrakech:

“Une vigilance accrue est requise dans les grandes agglomérations comme par exemple Casablanca ou Marrakech où des voleurs à moto circulent sur les trottoirs pour dérober sacs à main et téléphones portables.” (“Increased vigilance is required in large urban areas such as Casablanca or Marrakech, where thieves on motorbikes ride along the pavements to snatch handbags and mobile phones.”)

The United Kingdom, next. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, in its “Morocco travel advice” page updated on 19 August 2026, devotes an entire section to bogus tourist guides. It is entitled “Bogus tourist guides” and contains this sentence:

“It is common for people posing as official tourist guides to harass tourists.”

(“Il est courant que des personnes se faisant passer pour des guides touristiques officiels harcèlent les touristes.”)

“It is common” — common. And the verb used is “harass”: to harass. It is the most direct official wording we found in this entire investigation, and it comes from a state that has no dispute with Rabat over the Sahara. Nobody will be able to say that it is an Algerian bias.

The same British document adds, on petty crime:

“Petty crime is common in tourist areas, especially in historical districts (medina quarters) and on beaches.”

(“La petite délinquance est courante dans les zones touristiques, en particulier dans les quartiers historiques — les quartiers de la médina — et sur les plages.”)

And on taxis, it recommends that you “agree the fare in advance” or “check that the taxi uses a meter”.

The United States, next. The State Department, on its country page updated on 4 June 2025, writes in its section on crime:

“Aggressive panhandling, pickpocketing, purse-snatching, theft from unoccupied vehicles, and harassment of women are the most frequently reported issues.”

(“La mendicité agressive, le vol à la tire, l'arrachage de sacs à main, le vol dans les véhicules non occupés et le harcèlement des femmes sont les problèmes les plus fréquemment signalés.”)

“The most frequently reported issues”: the most frequently reported problems. The harassment of women is not a detail in it: it is on the short list.

Canada, finally. Its travel advice, updated on 9 September 2026, identifies medinas, markets, parks and beaches as the places where “pickpocketing, bag-snatching on foot and by motorcycle, scams and other types of theft” occur. And it recommends that you “stay on the main roads, especially in the medinas”.

There we have four states, four administrations, four independent editorial teams. None of them has any interest in heaping blame on Morocco. Three of them explicitly name the medinas. One explicitly names Marrakech.

And now, what must also be said — because without that, this investigation would be dishonest.

The United Kingdom never names Marrakech. We checked: the word does not appear even once anywhere in its Morocco page. Canada mentions Marrakech only in its Health section, to point out that the city has good private clinics. As for the American level 2 advisory, it speaks only of terrorism: no scam, no fake guide, no harassment, no Marrakech.

And none of these four documents gives a figure. Neither a number of victims, nor an amount, nor a frequency. So we will give none on that side either.

Finally, France adds a sentence that it would be dishonest to omit, and it does credit to Morocco:

“Le Maroc demeure un pays sûr et sous contrôle des autorités, mais qui reste exposé à la menace terroriste.” (“Morocco remains a safe country under the control of the authorities, but one that remains exposed to the terrorist threat.”)

The same document credits the Moroccan authorities with real action: the Moroccan ministry in charge of tourism “strives to obtain from serious professionals their adherence to a code of conduct”, and the local authorities “take particular care to prohibit any canvassing on the public highway”.

That is the exact picture, and it is not the one people believe: a state that acts, and foreign states that observe that it is still not enough.

💰 The money: one hundred and thirty-eight billion on one side, three thousand four hundred and twenty-two dirhams on the other

It remains to set out the only comparison that matters — and that one is provided by Moroccan documents.

What tourism brings in. In 2025, Morocco received nineteen million eight hundred thousand visitors, fourteen per cent more than in 2024, and forty-three million four hundred thousand overnight stays in classified establishments. Tourism receipts in foreign currency reached one hundred and thirty-eight billion dirhams — one hundred and thirty-eight point one billion according to the Office des changes — up twenty-one per cent in one year. These figures are those of the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism, Handicrafts and the Social and Solidarity Economy, and they were confirmed by the Office des changes.

And that is not all. Over the first eight months of 2026, the country has already received fourteen million one hundred thousand tourists, and the month of August 2026 crossed the bar of two million visitors in a single month for the first time.

What tourism weighs. **The OECD (OCDE), in its report Tourism Trends and Policies 2026, data as at 17 June 2026: a direct contribution to gross domestic product of seven point three per cent in 2024, that is one hundred and sixteen point two billion dirhams; eight hundred and ninety-four thousand direct jobs in 2025, that is eight point two per cent of total employment; and forty point seven per cent of the country's exports of services.**

What a Moroccan employee earns, now. **Decree No 2.25.983, published in the Bulletin officiel No 7469 of 29 December 2025, sets the legal minimum wage in non-agricultural activities at seventeen dirhams ninety-two per hour, from 1 January 2026. On the legal basis of one hundred and ninety-one hours per month, that represents three thousand four hundred and twenty-two dirhams seventy-two gross per month. About three hundred and nineteen euros.**

And here is the data point that demolishes everything that is said about the “average Moroccan salary”. The Moroccan Observatory for Very Small, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, in its annual report published in January 2026, gives the distribution of the four million nine hundred and thirty-one thousand one hundred declared jobs in 2024:

forty-six point six per cent are paid no more than the minimum wage;
seventy-two point seven per cent are paid no more than four thousand dirhams a month;
eighty-five point eight per cent no more than six thousand dirhams;
and only two point eight per cent earn more than twenty thousand dirhams.

Almost three declared employees out of four, in Morocco, earn four thousand dirhams or less. This is not an estimate, nor a contestable average: it is a statistical table, built on data from the General Directorate of Taxes, the Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property, the National Social Security Fund, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Bank Al-Maghrib.

Housing, now. **According to the analysis by the property portal Mubawab covering the first half of 2025, taken up by Aujourd'hui le Maroc on 19 August 2025, the national average rent for an empty flat stands at eight thousand seven hundred and forty dirhams a month. And the most expensive area of Morocco is neither Casablanca nor Rabat: it is Marrakech-Agdal, at twelve thousand six hundred and fifty dirhams a month.**

Let us now set out the only calculations in this investigation, and give the formula so that everyone can redo them.

one hundred and thirty-eight billion dirhams of tourism receipts divided by three thousand four hundred and twenty-two dirhams seventy-two of gross monthly minimum wage: about forty million monthly minimum wages. (138,000,000,000 ÷ 3,422.72 ≈ 40.3 million)
twelve thousand six hundred and fifty dirhams of rent in Marrakech-Agdal divided by three thousand four hundred and twenty-two dirhams seventy-two: three point seven. The rent in the most expensive district of Marrakech represents three point seven times the Moroccan minimum wage. (12,650 ÷ 3,422.72 ≈ 3.70)
six hundred dirhams demanded from a tourist for a two-finger tattoo, divided by three thousand four hundred and twenty-two dirhams seventy-two: seventeen point five per cent. Nearly one fifth of the Moroccan monthly minimum wage. (600 ÷ 3,422.72 ≈ 0.175)

This last calculation is the most important in the investigation, and it must be read twice. What a European holidaymaker perceives as an anecdote — six hundred dirhams, around sixty euros — represents nearly one fifth of the monthly minimum wage of a Moroccan worker in the non-agricultural sector. It is exactly that gap in perception that these practices exploit. And that is why they are not a simple question of tourism: they are a social question.

While tourism was breaking its records, inequalities worsened. The Haut-Commissariat au plan (HCP), in its national survey on household living standards 2022-2023, notes that the Gini coefficient rose from thirty-eight point five per cent in 2019 to forty point five per cent in 2022. The report adds this sentence, which is not ours: “the middle class was not able to benefit as much either from the fruits of growth or from redistribution policies”.

And here is the last figure, the one that explains all the rest. In the second quarter of 2026, the unemployment rate of holders of a higher education qualification stands at sixteen point seven per cent — against three point eight per cent among people with no qualification at all. In Morocco today, the more qualified you are, the more you risk unemployment. It is the Haut-Commissariat au plan itself that publishes it.

A clarification of method, because it matters: the HCP changed its survey in 2026, and these figures are not comparable with earlier series. We therefore do not present them as a trend, only as a snapshot.

🎬 What the videos really show — four patterns, and not one more

We downloaded and transcribed twenty-one videos published on YouTube about Marrakech. One unpleasant thing must be said first, and we will say it before anyone reproaches us for it: only seven of them really deal with scams in Marrakech. The others talk about Tanger, about Fès, about the cost of living, about an inheritance dispute, or contain no usable words. We will not inflate this investigation with what is not in it.

So here are the four patterns genuinely documented by precise testimonies — and nothing else.

One — the tannery circuit, with four actors. A passer-by points out the square to them, free of charge. Five minutes later, the same man comes back “by chance” on a scooter, with an accomplice. He drops them in an alley and hands over to a second man, who offers a visit to the tanneries. A third then leads them to a leather shop, where a fourth tries to sell belts and babouches. At the end, the guide demands fifty dirhams a head — ten euros for a five-minute visit —, repeats “five euros” eight times, then launches a “final warning” for twenty dirhams more. The witness concludes: “there were more than four different actors who took over”. And he adds: “their scam strategy is extremely well rehearsed”.

Two — the weight fraud and the fake gift, on Jemaa el-Fna square. The customer tastes samples, receives a “gift”, and then the seller fills the bag without ever putting it on the scales. He announces one hundred and sixty plus eighty, that is two hundred and forty dirhams, before stopping at two hundred and ten. The commentator on the case puts it bluntly: “The problem is that he didn't weigh it. So it's a weight fraud.”

Three — the airport taxi, and the price quoted in euros. The witness sums up the method in one sentence: “He doesn't tell you the price in dirhams, he tells you the price in euros.” And he adds: “Afterwards, you're going to realise that the ride actually costs ten dirhams, so about one euro.” He also reports the case of a British videographer who is said to have paid three hundred and fifty dirhams for a ride whose displayed fare was seventy.

Four — the photo you get billed for, and the animal question. Monkeys locked in one-square-metre boxes, chained. The soliciting is permanent, the price negotiated live — one hundred dirhams, then fifty, then twenty. And the testimony is precise: “as soon as one of them puts his hand near, he is terrified”. We are not an editorial team specialising in animal welfare, but that fact deserves to be written: it is no longer a negotiation, it is a living being locked in a box to serve as scenery.

These four patterns are published testimonies, not established facts. We have seen neither an invoice, nor a police report, nor an official price list. We report them as such, with the link to each video, so that everyone can watch them and judge for themselves.

And there is one thing we will not write, because we did not find it: none of the twenty-one videos we transcribed documents precisely the “breakdown” of the payment terminal, taxi detours, the currency exchange scam, fake police officers, fake hotel employees, bag-snatching or the harassment of women in Marrakech. We know that these things exist: the official documents quoted above do speak of them. But we will not mix state warnings with holiday videos to pad out the volume.

🟢 What must also be said, which others will not say

This section is the reason why the rest of this investigation is credible. If you are to read only one passage, read this one.

Two videos deliberately tested the most decried places: the airport, the square, the souks, a tannery, a café reputed to be the most expensive in the city. Their conclusion comes down to one sentence: “We didn't come up against any real scams.” And they add: “There is nobody who was insistent or aggressive.”

The same video takes care to warn against its own method: “Just because you test all the scams in a country doesn't mean there are an enormous number of them.” It is a methodological caution that few videographers impose on themselves, and we take it on our own account.

The café on a panoramic terrace over Jemaa el-Fna square, chosen precisely because it seemed the most expensive in the city, cost seventy-four dirhams for two coffees and two bottles of water. With no service charge, and the tip left free.

The official airport taxi cost less than a booking app: one hundred and thirty-two dirhams against two hundred. The witness says it himself: “no crook here”.

The snake charmers, in one of the videos, did not insist. The witness writes it: “they weren't insistent”.

And the best-known anti-scam guide on the subject takes care to defuse the generalisation himself: “I really don't want to generalise, to say that all taxi drivers are scammers, that's not true.” He also recalls that the phenomenon follows the tourist flow, and not a culture: during the two years of the pandemic, he says, there were almost no more scammer drivers — because there were almost no more tourists.

That is what an honest investigation must contain. It is not a concession made out of politeness: it is information. A city where two videos out of twenty-one find nothing, and where the most expensive café on the square costs seventy-four dirhams, is not a city of scammers. It is a city where a well-oiled commercial system has settled in the busiest areas, and where the public authority has known it for twenty-eight years.

🇲🇦 And the Moroccan voice, which says better than we do what must be said

We must now speak of the most important thing in this investigation, and of the most awkward for us.

Out of twenty-one videos, the people who describe the system are almost all foreign tourists and content creators. Moroccan voices exist, but they are rare and brief. We say it instead of hiding it: we cannot make a corpus say what it does not contain.

The strongest of these voices is that of a Moroccan content creator, who says this:

“Not everyone steals. There are an enormous number of people who are devout, who are serious and who work honestly.”

And he adds, in the same sequence, the sentence that should be read by all those who exploit this kind of file:

“But people are starting to conflate things, to say that Morocco is a country of scams, because of this kind of behaviour.”

It is not us speaking. It is a Moroccan speaking about his country, and refusing the conflation before anyone reproaches him for it. His economic diagnosis is in fact harsher than ours:

“The real problem in Morocco is that these are opportunists who work one-shot. You don't think about the one who is going to come back perhaps in a few months or in a few years.”

He even publicly owns his position on punishment — which few people do: “that's why I, for my part, am in favour of a heavy sentence for the seller”, he says, because the latter “may have done it dozens, or even hundreds, maybe even thousands of times”.

And the harshest witness in the whole corpus, a tourist, sets a bound himself: “Marrakech is only one city and it represents nothing of the whole country.”

That is why we will never write that “Moroccans” do anything at all. The first to say it are Moroccans — and they say it better than we do, because it is their country, their economy and their reputation that they are defending.

🎯 The conclusion, in five sentences

Morocco created its first tourist police brigade in January 1998, in Marrakech; it inaugurated on 2 December 2025 a control room of two hundred and sixty-two cameras, forty-five of them with facial recognition, in the medina alone; and in 2019 it was already arresting twelve fake guides a day. Nobody can therefore maintain that the phenomenon is unknown.

In 2026, two of the three arrests linked to a tourist were triggered by a video published by the victim, and not by a complaint — whereas the number of complaints filed by tourists in Marrakech is published nowhere. It is there, and nowhere else, that the real subject lies.

The country took in one hundred and thirty-eight billion dirhams of tourism receipts in foreign currency in 2025, while seventy-two point seven per cent of its declared employees earned no more than four thousand dirhams a month, while the gross minimum wage stood at three thousand four hundred and twenty-two dirhams, while the average rent of an empty flat in Marrakech-Agdal reached twelve thousand six hundred and fifty dirhams, and while inequalities worsened between 2019 and 2022.

The United Kingdom writes to its nationals that it is “common” for fake guides to harass them; France names Marrakech in an official warning about fake agencies; the United States ranks the harassment of women among the most frequently reported problems in Morocco; Canada recommends staying on the main roads in the medinas. None of these four states has a dispute with Rabat over the Sahara.

So the question is not whether Marrakech is a dangerous city: it is not, and those who tested it say so themselves. The question is why what has been known since 1998, counted, filmed, published, judged, and flagged by four foreign governments, continues. As long as that question has no public answer, videos will keep doing the work that complaints do not do.

🔗 The sources, in direct access — click and check for yourself

The creation of the tourist brigades in January 1998, the nine initial cities, the fourteen cities in 2018 and the central DGSN service — Hibapress, conference of the DGSN Open Days in Marrakech, 29 September 2018: https://fr.hibapress.com/news-21717.html
“The tourist police have been active in Marrakech since January 1998. It was the first of its kind.” — Le360, press review of Jeune Afrique, 19 December 2024: https://fr.le360.ma/economie/marrakech-la-securite-un-outil-touristique-majeur_7MSP4MTQ2BHPLHX4K3XSBQKCO4/
The inauguration of the control room, the 262 cameras including 45 with facial recognition — official portal of the Kingdom of Morocco, MAP dispatch, 2 December 2025: https://www.medi1news.com/fr/article/374280.html — and LeBrief, 2 December 2025: https://www.lebrief.ma/marrakech-renforce-la-securite-de-lancienne-medina-avec-une-nouvelle-salle-de-videosurveillance-100132562/

The 735 fake guides arrested in two months in 2019, the 1,800 of the first half of 2018, and the average of twelve a day — Le360 after the Moroccan daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, 8 March 2019: https://fr.le360.ma/societe/marrakech-arrestation-de-plus-de-700-faux-guides-185582/
The arrest of 13 March 2026 after the broadcast of a video — H24info, 16 March 2026: https://h24info.ma/maroc/societe/marrakech-arrestation-homme-filme-harceler-touriste/
The assault of 20 July 2026 and the investigation triggered by the victim's video — LeBrief, 21 July 2026: https://www.lebrief.ma/marrakech-arrestation-dun-faux-guide-apres-agression-dun-touriste-100160750/
The conviction of 11 November 2025: two months without suspension for the fake guide, six hundred dirhams for two tattooed fingers — Aujourd'hui le Maroc, 14 November 2025: https://aujourdhui.ma/faits-divers/a-marrakech-un-faux-guide-et-une-tatoueuse-au-henne-ecopent-de-2-mois-de-prison

France — “Morocco — Useful information”: the fake agencies of Marrakech and the “VIP contracts”, and the aggressive canvassing methods — Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, updated 15 September 2026: https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/information-par-pays/maroc/conseils-aux-voyageurs-informations-utiles
France — “Morocco — Security”: the harassment of women, motorcycle thieves in Marrakech, thefts in Airbnb-type rentals — Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, updated 11 March 2026: https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/information-par-pays/maroc/conseils-aux-voyageurs-securite
United Kingdom — “It is common for people posing as official tourist guides to harass tourists” — Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, updated 19 August 2026: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/morocco
United States — “Aggressive panhandling, pickpocketing, purse-snatching […] and harassment of women are the most frequently reported issues” — State Department, country page, updated 4 June 2025: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Morocco.html
Canada — medinas, markets, parks and beaches identified as places of theft and scams — travel advice, updated 9 September 2026: https://voyage.gc.ca/destinations/maroc

The 19.8 million visitors, the 138 billion dirhams of receipts in foreign currency and the 43.4 million overnight stays of 2025 — Moroccan Ministry of Tourism, Handicrafts and the Social and Solidarity Economy, “Key figures” page: https://mtaess.gov.ma/fr/chiffres-cles/ — and 138.1 billion according to the Office des changes, reported by Médias24, 30 January 2026: https://medias24.com/2026/01/30/les-recettes-touristiques-franchissent-les-138-mmdh-a-fin-decembre-2025-1619875/
The 14.1 million tourists from January to August 2026 and the August record — Travel Quotidiano citing the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism, 8 September 2026: https://www.travelquotidiano.com/estero/marocco-141-mln-di-visitatori-in-otto-mesi-con-un-agosto-da-record/tqid-521482
The direct contribution of tourism to GDP (7.3 %), the 894,000 jobs (8.2 %) and the 40.7 % of services exports — OECD (OCDE), Tourism Trends and Policies 2026, Morocco profile, page 298, data as at 17 June 2026: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2026/06/oecd-tourism-trends-and-policies-2026_13326fe2/3fd3cd75-en.pdf

Decree No 2.25.983 of 29 December 2025: minimum wage of 17.92 dirhams an hour in non-agricultural activities, and 97.44 dirhams a day in agricultural activities — Bulletin officiel No 7469, page 10038, full text on the Adala portal of the Moroccan Ministry of Justice: https://adala.justice.gov.ma/api/uploads/2026/01/02/%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%b3%d9%88%d9%85%20%d8%b1%d9%82%d9%85%202.25.983%20%d8%a8%d8%aa%d8%ad%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%af%20%d9%85%d8%a8%d9%84%d8%ba%20%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d8%af%20%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d8%af%d9%86%d9%89%20%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%88%d9%86%d9%8a%20%d9%84%d9%84%d8%a3%d8%ac%d8%b1-1767367317805.pdf
The distribution of wages: 72.7 % of declared jobs at 4,000 dirhams or less, 46.6 % at no more than the minimum wage, 2.8 % above 20,000 dirhams — OMTPME, Annual report, 2025 edition, table 52, 2024 data, published in January 2026: https://omtpme.ma/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/OMTPME_RA-Edition-2025.pdf
The national average rent of 8,740 dirhams and the 12,650 dirhams of Marrakech-Agdal, the highest in Morocco — Aujourd'hui le Maroc after the analysis by the Mubawab portal, 19 August 2025: https://aujourdhui.ma/economie/marche-locatif-les-prix-moyens-en-hausse-au-premier-semestre-2025

The Gini coefficient rising from 38.5 % in 2019 to 40.5 % in 2022, and the sentence about the middle class — Haut-Commissariat au plan, national survey on household living standards 2022-2023: https://www.hcp.ma/file/241059/
Unemployment of 16.7 % among higher education graduates against 3.8 % among people with no qualification, in the second quarter of 2026 — Haut-Commissariat au plan, information note on the labour market situation: https://www.hcp.ma/attachment/2897232/
Morocco's human development index: 0.710, one hundred and twentieth in the world, first entry into the “high human development” category — UNDP (PNUD), Human Development Report 2025, Morocco country note: https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2025-05/hdr2025-maroc2025-clean_0.pdf

The videos we transcribed, and from which we quote passages — these are testimonies published by their authors, presented as such, and not facts established by us:
the tannery circuit, the photo you get billed for with animals and the “five euros” repeated eight times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t64A4Gc3UFk
the weight fraud on dried fruit at Jemaa el-Fna, and the Moroccan voice quoted above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmKMcQrEDXs
the two test videos that find no scam, and the café at seventy-four dirhams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwjHLm3vs_I and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tBpLWtTKxU
the airport taxi, the price quoted in euros and the call not to generalise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuWwHvnPGHk
the whole day under solicitation on Jemaa el-Fna square: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF4BrU_qo0A
the report on the tannery, the monkeys and everyday prices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMsSd64P1Gw

These links open the documents cited directly, with their dates. The second and third sets of links are the most important: they allow you to read for yourself, word for word, what four foreign governments write to their citizens, and what the Moroccan institutions say. We have summarised nothing from memory, and we have invented nothing.

A final note, and it is a serious one. We found no official series of complaints filed by tourists in Marrakech, for any year: so we present none. The “Memento de sécurité” of the French consulate general in Marrakech has been withdrawn from the site, and we therefore do not cite it. We have not seen any judgment with our own eyes: the two criminal sanctions cited in this investigation are reported by the press or by videographers, and we say so every time. And we did not question the Moroccan authorities: we are responding to public documents, and we will publish their reply if it reaches us.