Tags: Morocco, Jabaroot, Mohamed Raji, DGED, DGST, corruption, El Hammouchi, Yassine Mansouri, Mehdi Jijaouy,
Source : El Confidencial
The Moroccan architect of Pegasus espionage, ‘hacked’: his data and properties, on the net.
The hack suffered by Mohamed Raji, « number two » of counter-espionage and the secret police, reveals a major new breach in Morocco’s security apparatus.
Ignacio Cembrero 14/08/2025
Mohamed Raji, 65, is considered in intelligence circles to be the man behind wiretaps in Morocco, a field he has been dedicated to for more than 30 years. He is also identified as the mastermind behind the acquisition, at the end of the last decade, and the massive use of the Israeli malicious software Pegasus by the Moroccan Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance (DGST) to continue listening to mobile phones.
With this « malware, » not only were Moroccan opponents and Algerian generals spied on, but also top-level European politicians, including French President Emmanuel Macron and the Belgian Charles Michel, who was then presiding over the European Council, according to the 2021 investigation by the journalistic consortium Forbidden Stories.
A year later, in Spain, it was the government itself that announced that the devices of President Pedro Sánchez and at least two ministers had been infected. The Agriculture Minister, Luis Planas, also suffered a cyberattack that was unsuccessful. The government never acknowledged that the head of diplomacy, Arancha González Laya, was also a target of foreign espionage.
The Moroccan spy Raji has in turn been spied on. On Tuesday, private data and documents about him began to appear on Jabaroot, a Telegram channel that since April has been publishing illegally obtained and compromising information about Moroccan authorities.
Regarding Raji, everything from his ID card, his modest monthly salary (2,378 euros), and his bank account to property deeds for industrial parks acquired in Beni Mellal for the equivalent of 2.86 million euros has appeared. From the tangle of documents dumped online, it can be inferred that he has collected commissions for the purchase of espionage equipment, as the exiled Moroccan journalist Souleiman Raissouni emphasizes on Facebook.
Raji is not just « Monsieur écoutes » (Mr. Taps), the French nickname he was sometimes given in Rabat. He is in fact the « number two » of the DGST, which is both a counter-espionage agency and a secret police force responsible, among other activities, for political repression. Its top boss is Abdellatif Hammouchi, but Raji has so much influence in the secret service that he has sometimes received direct assignments from King Mohammed VI, bypassing the hierarchy, according to an intelligence source.
These revelations « are a dagger that pierces the heart of Morocco’s security apparatus and gives the impression that it is only the first of a series, » a well-informed source on the inner workings of the country’s secret services comments by phone. « Although he has remained in the shadows, the high-ranking official who was the victim of the hack is probably one of the most important figures in the constellation of espionage, » he assures.
« Corruption in Morocco is no longer practiced in the streets, but rather under the cover of the security services because the king no longer has the power to dismiss any of their officials, regardless of their level of influence, » the Jabaroot channel emphasizes in a political commentary accompanying the document dump. « That’s why you will no longer hear about an investigation being opened, a resignation, or an official being dismissed, » it adds. « The corrupt security apparatus that was supposed to protect Morocco is now an out-of-control tool (…), » it concludes.
Not only was the opening of an investigation not announced, but the Moroccan press remains silent about these revelations, unlike what happened when the channel began its activity in April. At that time, some newspapers did report on the publications, although they included official reactions insisting that the documents were manipulated. They all claimed at the time that Algerian hackers were behind Jabaroot.
The documents have turned out to be authentic. Now in Rabat, the Algerian enemy is no longer being singled out, but there is a lot of quiet speculation about who could have accessed this sensitive documentation and is leaking it.
The first hypothesis points to Mehdy Hijaouy, the former « number two » of the General Directorate of Studies and Documentation (DGED), the foreign secret service, who fled the country last year. He passed through Madrid for a time until Rabat requested his extradition from Spain for, among other reasons, promoting irregular migration. Fearing he would be handed over, he sought refuge in another European country.
Another conjecture points to rebellious agents who were under Hammouchi’s command and who have revolted by disclosing sensitive information. The DGST acknowledged in a statement that between 2022 and mid-2023, 38 agents had deserted their posts. It thus nuanced the claim that, as had been published, more than 160 had left, many of them taking advantage of a stay abroad. The data is in any case revealing of the discontent that prevailed in that corps.
Finally, there is also the hypothesis of revenge inflicted on the Moroccan DGST by the foreign secret service of a European country whose leaders were victims of Pegasus five years ago. In the world of intelligence, people remember the so-called « Moroccan Wikileaks » when, in the autumn of 2014, hundreds of documents from Moroccan diplomacy and its foreign intelligence agency appeared on Twitter.
It is now known that this was retaliation by the General Directorate of External Security, the French foreign secret service, after the publication, by the Moroccan press, of confidential data about the woman who was then at the head of its office in Rabat. She was forced to leave Morocco quickly.
The Jabaroot channel debuted in April by leaking the database of the National Treasury of Social Security, with its two million payrolls — many Moroccans are not registered — including that of Mounir Majidi, private secretary to Mohammed VI and manager of Siger, the royal holding. His emoluments as manager amount to 1.3 million euros per year.
Then, in June, the notarial deeds for the purchase of expensive and luxurious properties by Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Yassine Mansouri, head of the foreign secret service, came to light. The Order of Notaries of Morocco has just reported this leak to the prosecutor’s office, thus giving it full credibility.
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