longer-distance destinations (such as Rabat or Tangier) you may have to take a taxi to Souk el-
Arba-du-Rharb (Dh20, 45 minutes) or Ksar el-Kebir (Dh25, one hour) and change.
ISSAGUEN & KETAMA
Issaguen and Ketama have a notorious reputation. This is an area beyond the law. People will wonder what you are doing
here, and naturally assume you are buying hashish. There is nowhere to turn if you get into trouble, and little to hold anyone
back who wants some. Travellers are strongly advised to pass through and not spend the night here.East of Chefchaouen
ISSAGUEN
POP 5000
Heading southeast out of Chefchaouen, the road N2 plunges into the heart of the Rif, running
about 150km along the backbone of the mountains. The roads are rough, and the endless
twists and turns make the going slow. There are few petrol stations.
The small, rough town of Bab Berret marks the unofficial entry point to kif country, which is
the largest hashish production area in the world. Marijuana fields are all around, but out of sight
from the road. Huge stacks of chemical fertiliser are on sale in the markets.
Issaguen appears unexpectedly from the middle of the cedar forests. A scruffy frontier town,
it is one of the commercial centres of kif cultivation and smuggling (Ketama, 20km away, being
the other. The two towns are sometimes marked on maps as being the same place). Traffic
moves haphazardly down its pitted dirt main street, where gutted sheep hang by the roadside
and hooded men walk furtively about.
To the southeast, Jebel Tidiquin (2448m), the highest peak in the Rif Mountains, dominates
the skyline.
THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY
The Rif is home to the largest acreage of cannabis cultivation in the world, an estimated 1340 sq km, or 42% of global
production. Cultivation has expanded rapidly since the 1980s, in part due to increasing European demand. The cannabis trade
is now the region’s main economic activity, involving an estimated 800,000 people, and probably Morocco’s main source of
foreign currency, although rural farmers reap little from it.
Cannabis cultivation started around Ketama in the 15th century. In 1912 the right to cultivate cannabis was granted to a few
Rif tribes by Spain. In 1956, when Morocco gained independence, cannabis was prohibited, but Mohammed V later condoned
cultivation in the Rif after the prohibition led to conflict there.
Most large shipments of Moroccan hashish (a concentrated form of marijuana) are smuggled into Europe by boat, including
small speedboats that can make a round trip to Spain in an hour. The primary departure points are Martil, Oued Laou and Bou
Ahmed, although the bigger ports of Nador, Tetouan, Tangier and Larache are also used. Traffickers also export hashish
concealed in trucks and cars embarked on ferries leaving from the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla or from Tangier. Not
surprisingly, of all hashish seizures worldwide, half are made in Spain. It is now thought that terrorist groups are entering the
market in order to fund operations. Traffickers have also branched out into human smuggling, to include smuggling hashish
and migrants into Europe together.