Countries · North Africa · national

Morocco

Treat Morocco as closed to visiting drone pilots: drones sit outside the personal-effects allowance and import runs through an authorisation with no evidenced visitor route, and every Moroccan customs page behind this brief refuses automated requests, so nothing here is confirmed.

Closed to you for this profile · checked 7 October 2026

16 rules · 40 sources, 16 of them official · 19 fields unconfirmed · Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII), Morocco customs. No Moroccan civil aviation authority page was reached in either research pass or in the practice pass, so the aviation regulator is not established by this brief.

Your answer

The authority's own pages could not be reached on our checks; treat this brief as provisional.

What decides it

Importation by private individuals under the temporary-admission regime is strictly prohibited.not confirmed
Failure to declare the machine to customs at the entry office entails its confiscation.not confirmed
Failure to declare also entails the payment of a penalty conformement a la reglementation en vigueur (in accordance with the regulations in force). No amount, currency figure or statutory article is stated in any cited document.not confirmed
Drones and other remotely controlled flying objects are excluded from the children's-toys and personal-effects tolerance, so a small drone cannot ride in on the accompanied-baggage allowance. The exclusion is categorical, with no size or value carve-out.not confirmed

Before you fly, in order

Powered, remotely controlled unmanned flying machines, including drones, are subject to an import licence issued by the department responsible for foreign trade.
Importation by private individuals under the temporary-admission regime is strictly prohibited.
Temporary admission of these machines is subject to special authorisation.
Failure to declare the machine to customs at the entry office entails its confiscation.
Failure to declare also entails the payment of a penalty conformement a la reglementation en vigueur (in accordance with the regulations in force). No amount, currency figure or statutory article is stated in any cited document.
The special-authorisation request must be submitted at least 8 days before arrival in Morocco.
The request must identify the importer by name, surname and passport number.
The request must state the intended duration of the equipment's stay.
The request must include technical identification: a description, photographs, and a catalogue or technical sheet.
The request must state the intended use, the entry and exit dates, and the entry and re-export customs offices.
The request must give the planned use sites with Lambert coordinates, meaning Lambert Conformal Conic in the Moroccan zones rather than WGS84 latitude and longitude.
Definitive importation (mise a la consommation) of drones requires an import licence from the Department of Foreign Trade.
Absent the import licence, the machines are placed in customs deposit for a period not exceeding 45 days, after which they are considered abandoned.
Definitive importation of unmanned flying machines requires the production of an import licence issued by the Department responsible for Foreign Trade. The word definitive separates this from the temporary-admission regime.
Drones and other remotely controlled flying objects are excluded from the children's-toys and personal-effects tolerance, so a small drone cannot ride in on the accompanied-baggage allowance. The exclusion is categorical, with no size or value carve-out.
Spare lithium batteries in cabin baggage only: up to 100 Wh without approval, 100 to 160 Wh with airline approval and two spares, over 160 Wh not allowed (IATA passenger guidance; airlines may be stricter).

Spare lithium batteries in cabin baggage only: up to 100 Wh without approval, 100 to 160 Wh with airline approval and two spares, over 160 Wh not allowed (IATA passenger guidance; airlines may be stricter).

How a visitor gets legal

Each step as the authority describes it, with who may apply, what it costs and how long it takes.

Step 1
Request written customs authorisation before travelling
Before travelling, request written authorisation from Moroccan customs. The first research pass reports a lead time of at least 8 days before arrival and a defined content list for the request. Whether a non-resident can apply at all, and whether an application without a Moroccan address or telephone number is accepted, is not established by any source in either pass.
Eligibility not stated · Not established · At least 8 days before arrival
- Name, surname and passport number
- Technical description of the equipment
- Photographs, catalogue or technical sheet
- Intended use
- Entry and exit dates
- Entry and re-export customs offices
- Planned use sites with Lambert coordinates
- Intended duration of stay
Open the official page
Step 2
Expect the private recreational route to be refused
Both research passes report ADII wording that importation by private individuals under the temporary-admission regime is strictly prohibited, so expect the request to be refused for a private recreational visit. The wording could not be checked against the document, and it pulls against the special-authorisation sentence in the leaflet aimed at foreign visitors.
Visitors not eligible · Not established · Not established
Open the official page
Step 3
If a route is approved, declare the drone at the entry customs office
On an approved route only, declare the drone at the entry customs office and keep the stamped paperwork for the whole stay and for re-export. No source establishes the form of the declaration, what the stamped document looks like, or how re-export is matched to the entry record.
Eligibility not stated · Not established · At entry
- Customs approval
- Passport
- Technical sheet
- Any correspondence with customs
Open the official page
Step 4
Undeclared drone: expect confiscation and a penalty
An undeclared machine is confiscated and a penalty is payable in accordance with the regulations in force. No amount, currency figure or statutory article appears in any cited document, so the exposure cannot be quantified from official sources.
Visitors eligible · No amount stated in any cited document · Immediate
Open the official page

The numbers

The engine's inputs, each with the verdict our verification pass gave it and the sources it rests on.

Field	What the pages say	Verdict	Sources
May a visiting pilot fly at all	No lawful route for a visiting recreational pilot.Closed by default, and the conclusion rests on an absence rather than on an unverified quote: no weight threshold, no open category, no exemption for a small aircraft and no recognition of a foreign registration appears anywhere in either research pass. The customs category is defined by propulsion and remote control, not by mass. Treat the value as the honest default while every cited document stays unopenable, not as a confirmed finding.	not confirmed	S1 S2 S9 S10
EU or EEA registration recognised	Not establishedNo retrieved source states that a foreign operator registration is recognised, and none states that it is not. The research brief's affirmative form, that Morocco does not appear to recognise an EASA, UK or US registration, was dropped by the verifier: it was cited to two customs leaflets whose own quoted content says nothing about operator registration. What remains is an absence.	not confirmed	S1 S2
UK registration recognised	Not establishedAbsence, not a finding. See the EASA note.	not confirmed	S1 S2
US registration recognised	Not establishedAbsence, not a finding. See the EASA note.	not confirmed	S1 S2
Local registration	Not establishedNo registration requirement, threshold, cost, processing time or portal appears anywhere in either pass. No Moroccan aviation source exists in the evidence base at all: the only reachable official source was the Bulletin Officiel search form, which carries no drone or aviation text. What the customs leaflets do describe is a pre-arrival import authorisation request, which is encoded in the rules and the workflow and is not an aircraft registration.	not confirmed	S6
Remote ID	Not establishedNot addressed by any source in the evidence base.	not confirmed	S6
Insurance	Not establishedNot addressed by any source in the evidence base.	not confirmed	S6
Altitude ceiling	Not establishedNot addressed by any source in the evidence base. No Moroccan altitude or airport separation figure may be synthesised from a manufacturer geofence.	not confirmed	S6
Distance from people	Not establishedNot addressed by any source in the evidence base.	not confirmed	S6
Line of sight	Not establishedNot addressed by any source in the evidence base.	not confirmed	S6
Night	Not establishedNot addressed by any source in the evidence base.	not confirmed	S6
Class marks	No C-class scheme appears in the evidence base. The only category in it is the customs one, engins volants sans pilote, propulses par un moteur et telecommandes (powered, remotely controlled unmanned flying machines), which is defined by propulsion and remote control rather than by mass. No weight threshold appears anywhere in either pass, so a sub-250 g aircraft gets no exemption on this evidence.The conservative reading rests on an absence rather than on a quote, which is why it survives verification while the quotes do not.	not confirmed	S1 S2
FPV	Not establishedNot addressed by any source in the evidence base.	not confirmed	S6
Commercial use	Not establishedThe research brief asserted a separate commercial regime. No Moroccan commercial-aviation source was cited by either pass, so the claim was dropped rather than retained as unverified. The radio rule MA-13 is the only purpose-scoped row in the evidence base, and it reaches professionals importing telecommunications equipment, not a commercial drone operation as such.	not confirmed	S6

Every rule we could confirm

Grouped by what they govern. A general rule decides the country's colour for a profile; a situational one applies in a place, a zone or a season.

Radio conformity

Importation by professionals of telecommunications equipment, terminals and radio installations that are not exempt from ANRT approval requires prior ANRT approval.
Permit per flight · general · not confirmed · S5
Note the scope word: the quoted rule covers professionnels, so it does not reach a visiting recreational pilot, whose radio-conformity position stays unknown.

Customs and import

Powered, remotely controlled unmanned flying machines, including drones, are subject to an import licence issued by the department responsible for foreign trade.
Permit per flight · general · not confirmed · S1
Importation by private individuals under the temporary-admission regime is strictly prohibited.
Closed to you · general · not confirmed · S2
Pulls directly against MA-02b. The two research passes attribute the two sentences to different documents and one pass puts both in the same leaflet; see conflicts.
Temporary admission of these machines is subject to special authorisation.
Permit per flight · general · not confirmed · S1
Which document carries this sentence is disputed between the two research passes, and it is the single thing most worth resolving by hand: prohibited and gated by special authorisation produce different answers for a traveller.
Failure to declare the machine to customs at the entry office entails its confiscation.
Closed to you · general · not confirmed · S2 S4
Failure to declare also entails the payment of a penalty conformement a la reglementation en vigueur (in accordance with the regulations in force). No amount, currency figure or statutory article is stated in any cited document.
Closed to you · general · not confirmed · S2 S4
The verified brief files this row under its own enforcement category, which the schema does not carry.
The special-authorisation request must be submitted at least 8 days before arrival in Morocco.
Open after a step · general · not confirmed · S1
Both research passes report 8 days consistently, so there is no internal numeric conflict, but the figure could not be checked against the document.
The request must identify the importer by name, surname and passport number.
Open after a step · general · not confirmed · S1
The request must state the intended duration of the equipment's stay.
Open after a step · general · not confirmed · S1
The request must include technical identification: a description, photographs, and a catalogue or technical sheet.
Open after a step · general · not confirmed · S1
The request must state the intended use, the entry and exit dates, and the entry and re-export customs offices.
Open after a step · general · not confirmed · S1
The request must give the planned use sites with Lambert coordinates, meaning Lambert Conformal Conic in the Moroccan zones rather than WGS84 latitude and longitude.
Open after a step · general · not confirmed · S1
Operationally the sharpest requirement in the brief, and it rests on a single unopenable page.
Definitive importation (mise a la consommation) of drones requires an import licence from the Department of Foreign Trade.
Permit per flight · general · not confirmed · S2
Absent the import licence, the machines are placed in customs deposit for a period not exceeding 45 days, after which they are considered abandoned.
Open after a step · general · not confirmed · S3
Historical: the only source is a circular dated 11 June 2015. Do not present it as current practice. The same 45-day figure reappears on a secondary travel page as a returnable-custody window, which is not corroboration.
Definitive importation of unmanned flying machines requires the production of an import licence issued by the Department responsible for Foreign Trade. The word definitive separates this from the temporary-admission regime.
Permit per flight · general · not confirmed · S7
Recovery R1 in the verified brief: a document both research passes cited and neither read, which resolves the tension the first pass flagged as its central problem. Licence-gated definitive import and a separate temporary-admission regime are two tiers, not one contradiction.
Drones and other remotely controlled flying objects are excluded from the children's-toys and personal-effects tolerance, so a small drone cannot ride in on the accompanied-baggage allowance. The exclusion is categorical, with no size or value carve-out.
Closed to you · general · not confirmed · S9 S10
Recovery R3 in the verified brief: six ADII documents (59158, 85159, 72849, 92197, 94052, 96035) carry this exclusion across nine citations in the two research passes, and neither brief mentioned it once. It is the exact trap a visitor falls into and the closest thing in the evidence base to an answer on sub-250 g treatment. Press has since corroborated it: the 2026 Marhaba customs crossing guide was reported in June 2026 to state that motorised remote-controlled drones are not children's toys and are subject to special import procedures. That press report sits in the practice block and does not lift this rule's verdict.

Where the no-fly zones are published

No official geozone map is named on the pages we read, which is itself worth knowing before you travel.

Not established. No controlled-airspace or airport separation rule appears anywhere in the evidence base, including for Casablanca Mohammed V, Marrakech Menara and Agadir Al Massira. No official Moroccan radius rule may be synthesised, and a manufacturer geofence warning, or its absence, never establishes Moroccan legality.

Customs and the border

Declaration: Declare the machine to customs at the entry office. Failure to declare entails confiscation and the payment of a penalty in accordance with the regulations in force, with no amount stated in any cited document.
Import authorisation: Unresolved. The evidence base supports three readings, and the two research passes attribute them to different documents: definitive importation (mise a la consommation) is licence-gated by the Department of Foreign Trade; temporary admission by private individuals is strictly prohibited; and a special-authorisation route with an eight-day lead time appears in the leaflet aimed at foreign visitors. A further ADII document both passes cited and neither read lists unmanned flying machines (drones) among goods that cannot be imported into Morocco at all.
Radio conformity: Unknown for a visitor. The only quoted rule covers importation by professionals of telecommunications equipment, terminals and radio installations not exempt from ANRT approval, which does not reach a tourist carrying a drone. No ANRT page was reached as its own domain in either pass, only a customs page summarising it.

On the ground

What pilots, police and the press report actually happening. This is evidence about behaviour, not law: it never changes the status above, and it is dated and linked so you can judge it yourself.

Strictly enforced7 confirmed cases · 2015-05 to 2025-09 · practice pass 7 October 2026

Seven dated press reports between May 2015 and September 2025: drones seized at two land borders and at an airport on departure, one Gendarmerie seizure inland, and two court convictions with prison terms and fines of nearly 40,000 and 80,000 dirhams. Nothing confirmed says a declared drone is given back.

How people fly: No confirmed report describes a visitor completing a recreational flight at a named Moroccan tourist site. One commercial photography guide says many tourists fly small drones without incident in remote desert and mountain areas away from urban zones, and the same page also says operators flying without a permit have been confiscated and fined; it names no pilot, flight or date. The one confirmed case involving remote flying runs the other way: four French tourists used two drones during a Sahara holiday and were stopped at the land border on the way out, where the drones were confiscated and two of them were fined. The confirmed inland cases are in a province on the Marrakech to Essaouira road and in two towns, not at the desert and kasbah sites the guidance discusses.
Police and rangers: Police and the Royal Gendarmerie do intervene, and the cases reach court. Rabat judicial police interpellated three Mexican tourists on 17 December 2017 after a drone flew over the royal palace, the Constitutional Court and military and security premises while they were visiting the Sounna mosque; the technical and scientific police seized the drone and its controller and an investigation was opened, including into how the drone had entered Morocco through a national airport. The Royal Gendarmerie confiscated a drone at Mejjat in Chichaoua province in August 2019 from a Casablanca resident filming on an Eid al-Adha visit, and released him on bail to appear before the public prosecutor. Rabat's Court of First Instance sentenced the owner of a YouTube channel in February 2025, and Oued Zem's Court of First Instance sentenced two men in September 2025.
At the border: Customs seizures are confirmed at land borders as well as at airports, and in one case on the way out rather than on arrival. A Spanish national's remotely controlled aircraft was seized at the Bni Nsar crossing from Melilla in May 2015 and he was handed to the judicial police in Nador. Two drones were confiscated from four French tourists at the Bab Sebta crossing to Ceuta in March 2023, with two of them fined 150 euros each. A 42-year-old from Nice was stopped at Ouarzazate airport on his departure day, 29 April 2023, after a drone was found in his baggage, and his passport was taken. Moroccan press reported in March 2015 that customs had mobilised all its services to stop any remotely controlled aircraft entering without a prior import licence, and in June 2026 that the updated customs crossing guide places motorised remote-controlled drones outside the children's-toys tolerance and under special import procedures. Germany's Federal Foreign Office states that importing flying drones of any kind is strictly prohibited, that infringements are prosecuted and that the device is confiscated by customs; Canada states that drones and surveillance equipment are prohibited and will be confiscated on entry. The United Kingdom, French and Swiss advisories do not mention drones at all. The widely repeated route of declaring the drone on arrival and collecting it on departure, including a 201 MAD storage fee and a 45-day window, appears on five secondary travel pages and in no official source and no press report. On the authorisation route itself, the Interior Minister told parliament in March 2022 that 329 permanent import applications had been handled and 287 temporary import authorisations granted since 2015, that the Interior Ministry gives final approval after consulting the Industry Ministry or Customs, and that licences go to administrations, companies and public institutions for professional use, with no route named for private individuals or tourists. A member of parliament had asked in January 2022 why licences were limited to two companies while fifty applications were refused. Press accounts from 2015 and 2018 agree that applications go to the department responsible for foreign trade and are granted only with Interior Ministry approval.
Fines actually reported: Three penalties with stated amounts are confirmed. Moroccan customs fined two of the four French tourists stopped at Bab Sebta in March 2023 150 euros each and confiscated both drones. Rabat's Court of First Instance sentenced the owner of the YouTube channel Ana Jit on 25 February 2025 to four months in prison and a fine of nearly 40,000 dirhams, with confiscation of the drone, four batteries and the remote control, for filming the Prince Moulay Abdellah sports complex without authorisation and for illegal possession of a drone. Oued Zem's Court of First Instance sentenced two young men in the first week of September 2025 to six months suspended prison and a fine of 80,000 dirhams each for filming aerial scenes without a licence, and the aircraft was seized. No confirmed case states the nationality of the 2025 defendants, so neither is counted as a visitor case.

The law's own penalty schedule is separate: Not established, 1 published fine ranges below.

Where reports cluster

Rabat: the royal palace, the Constitutional Court, military and security premises, and the Prince Moulay Abdellah sports complex
The only place with two confirmed cases. The December 2017 flight over the palace and state sites ended with the drone and controller seized by the technical and scientific police and an investigation opened; the February 2025 filming of the sports complex ended in four months in prison, a fine of nearly 40,000 dirhams and confiscation of the drone, four batteries and the remote.
Land borders: Bni Nsar (Nador) and Bab Sebta (the crossing to Ceuta)
Two confirmed customs seizures, one of them with a 150-euro fine each for two of four tourists. Every secondary page in the research report discusses airports only, so the land crossings are the blind spot in the usual advice.
Ouarzazate airport
One confirmed case, and it happened on departure after the holiday rather than at the arrival screening the secondary pages describe. The passport was taken, not only the drone.
Chichaoua province (Mejjat), on the Marrakech to Essaouira road
The one confirmed Royal Gendarmerie field seizure, away from any border or capital: the drone was confiscated and the pilot released on bail to face the public prosecutor. It is the only evidence that a field stop happens at all, and it is not at a headline tourist site.
Oued Zem
A provincial-court conviction for filming aerial scenes over parts of the town without a licence: six months suspended and 80,000 dirhams each for two men, with the aircraft seized.
Marrakech Menara and Casablanca Mohammed V airports
Named by five secondary pages as where drones are picked up on the X-ray and taken. No confirmed case was located at either, in French, Arabic or English. The claim is plausible and unevidenced.
Erg Chebbi and Merzouga, Ait Benhaddou, Chefchaouen, Legzira, Toubkal and the Atlas parks, Agadir and Tangier airports
No confirmed report in either direction. The research report's claims here rest on one page that now returns HTTP 404 and one undated assertion of arrests as recently as 2024 with no month, name or court. Read this as an absence of reporting rather than as evidence that flying is accepted.

Dated reports

2015-05 · Bni Nsar border post, Nador province (land crossing from Melilla) · press
A Spanish national was stopped by customs officers as he was about to enter Moroccan territory; a remotely controlled helicopter was found during an inspection of his vehicle.
The aircraft was seized and he was handed to the judicial police in Nador pending investigation. report
2017-12 · Rabat: the royal palace, the Constitutional Court, and military and security premises · press
Three Mexican tourists, one of them a woman at the controls, flew a drone over the royal palace and sensitive state sites on Sunday 17 December while visiting the Sounna mosque.
Interpellated by police units. The drone and its controls were seized by the technical and scientific police to check whether images had been captured, and an investigation was opened, including into how the drone had entered Morocco through a national airport despite border instructions to stop drones. report
2019-08 · Mejjat, Chichaoua province · press
A Moroccan living in Casablanca, home for the Eid al-Adha holiday, used a drone to take photographs and video without the required licence.
The Royal Gendarmerie confiscated the drone and released him on bail to appear before the public prosecutor the following Monday. report
2023-03 · Bab Sebta, the Morocco to Ceuta land border · press
Four French tourists used two drones during a Sahara holiday, unaware the devices are prohibited, and were stopped at Moroccan customs on the way back.
The drones were confiscated by customs and two of the four were each fined 150 euros. report
2023-04-29 · Ouarzazate airport · press
A 42-year-old from Nice was stopped on his departure day, 29 April, after a drone was found in his baggage at the end of a family holiday.
He was interpellated and his passport was taken. report
2025-02 · Rabat, Court of First Instance (Prince Moulay Abdellah sports complex) · press
The owner of the YouTube channel Ana Jit filmed the sports complex by drone without authorisation, having got in by posing as a worker. The prosecutor ordered him held in early February.
Sentenced on 25 February 2025 to four months in prison and a fine of nearly 40,000 dirhams, with confiscation of the drone, four batteries and the remote control, for filming without authorisation and illegal possession of a drone. report
2025-09 · Oued Zem, Court of First Instance · press
Two young men were stopped while filming aerial scenes over parts of the town without the required licence.
Each sentenced to six months suspended prison and a fine of 80,000 dirhams, and the aircraft was seized. report

What the law says it costs

Published penalty ranges. What has actually been charged, where anyone reported it, is in the section above.

Offence	Range	Sources
Failure to declare the machine to customs at the entry office	Confiscation plus a penalty conformement a la reglementation en vigueur. No amount, currency figure or statutory article appears in any cited document, and no dirham figure was reported anywhere in either research pass.	S2 S4

Confiscation: Failure to declare these machines to the customs service entails their confiscation and the payment of a penalty.

What we could not confirm

Printed rather than hidden. A brief that answers everything has usually guessed somewhere, and a gap here is a real gap in the official pages or a page we could not reach.

12 cited pages refused our checks and are marked unreachable in the source list.

Sources that disagree

Whether temporary admission by a private individual is prohibited or gated by a special authorisation
One leaflet is reported to say that importation by private individuals under the temporary-admission regime is strictly prohibited (S2).
A leaflet aimed at foreign visitors is reported to say that temporary admission of these machines is subject to special authorisation, with an eight-day lead time (S1).
The two research passes attribute the special-authorisation sentence to two different documents, and the second pass assigns four rules to one leaflet, two of which pull against each other. The research tool's own stored snippets point to the first pass being the correct attribution, but that is inference from a snippet rather than verification, and neither page could be opened. This is the single thing most worth resolving by hand, because the two readings produce different answers for a traveller.
Which document carries the confiscation rule
One pass's source table places the English wording, failure to declare these machines to customs service entails their confiscation and the payment of a penalty, in the English arrival leaflet (S4).
The same pass's body, and the second pass, attribute the same rule to the French arrival leaflet (S2).
The rule is probably in both the French and the English arrival leaflets, which would make every attribution defensible. As written, no reader can tell which document to open, and the English leaflet is cited nowhere in either pass's body.
Whether drones may be imported at all, or only under licence
Several documents are reported to place drones under an import licence issued by the department responsible for foreign trade, which presupposes that import is possible (S1, S2, S7).
A further ADII document, cited by both research passes and read by neither, is reported to list Engins volants sans pilote (drones) among goods that cannot be imported into Morocco (S8).
A licence-gated category and a flat exclusion cannot both be the operative framing. Neither document could be opened, so the conflict is recorded rather than resolved. If the exclusion governs, the correct answer for every visitor is closed.

Everything. No claim in this brief is confirmed, because the one substantive official domain behind it refuses automated requests on every path and did not resolve at all on the day of this check. The content is unchanged in substance from the research pass; only its status changed, from high confidence and official to unverified on a single unreachable domain.
Whether any of the four customs leaflets says what the research passes report. None of them rendered to any transport tried: direct fetch, the no-www host, two text-extraction proxies, and the Wayback availability API, which reports that no snapshot exists.
Which document carries the special-authorisation sentence, L'admission temporaire de ces engins est soumise a autorisation speciale. The two research passes attribute it to different leaflets and one of them puts the opposite rule in the same document. Prohibited and gated by special authorisation produce different answers for a traveller, so this is the first thing to resolve by hand.
The aviation authority, the aviation regulation text and its effective dates. The research query itself pre-asserted the Direction Generale de l'Aviation Civile as already known, and no DGAC page, decree or Bulletin Officiel text was ever cited; the claim was circular and was dropped. The DGAC domain refused the connection when probed for this pass.
Whether customs clearance and aviation permission are separate, and what aviation permission a visitor would need. Asserted in the research brief and cited only to customs leaflets. True as a general principle of how these regimes separate, unsourced for Morocco.
The film-permit route through the Centre Cinematographique Marocain. Echoed from the research query's own premises; no CCM page was ever fetched or cited.
Registration, Remote ID, insurance, maximum altitude, separation from people, visual line of sight, night flying, FPV and the commercial regime. No Moroccan aviation source of any kind exists in the evidence base.
Numerical fines, criminal liability and imprisonment for unauthorised operation. No dirham amount was reported anywhere in either research pass, so there is no official figure to check.
Radio conformity for a visitor. The only quoted rule covers importation by professionals, which does not reach a tourist, and no ANRT page was reached as its own domain.
Whether a non-resident can apply for customs authorisation at all without a Moroccan address or telephone number.
Parks and protected areas: Toubkal, Souss-Massa, Ifrane, Erg Chebbi and Merzouga, Ait Benhaddou, Ouarzazate, Chefchaouen, Legzira, the medinas, monuments, religious sites and military zones. No park, environment, heritage or municipal source exists in either pass, and there is no permit path, fee, altitude or separation rule for any of them.
The geozone dataset, its format, licence and cadence, and any controlled-airspace or airport distance rule, including for Casablanca Mohammed V, Marrakech Menara and Agadir Al Massira.
Any Moroccan country-specific lithium-battery carriage rule for drones. Its absence is why the generic airline and IATA battery guidance is the only thing shown.
Lead R2: an ADII document both research passes cited and neither read lists Engins volants sans pilote (drones) among goods that cannot be imported into Morocco. It is stricter than either rule the briefs report, and if it is the operative framing the answer is closed rather than permit.
Lead R4: drones appear under Produits soumis a licence d'importation alongside bladed weapons in three further documents, which would lift the import-licence rule off a single source.
Lead R5: a named temporary-admission authorisation with a three-month ceiling, a deciding officer and a same-day processing time, for equipment to be type-approved by ANRT, sits on a page the second research pass cited while answering that no official page on processing times could be found.
Lead R6: an electronic pre-arrival temporary-admission channel for persons habitually resident abroad has existed since 1 January 2019 for means of transport, which bears directly on whether a non-resident can file before travelling.
Lead R7: the only pointer in the evidence base to which ministry issues the authorisation, and to a tariff restriction code (V.03.01.02) to look up, sits on a page the second pass cited while reporting that no official page on the application route could be found.
A second institution. One customs domain cannot carry a country brief. The aviation authority, the airports operator, the radio regulator as its own domain, the park and environment authority, the Centre Cinematographique Marocain, the Gendarmerie Royale, any municipality, and the Bulletin Officiel as actual text rather than a search form were all asked for and none was delivered.

What changed, and when

Dated changes to the rules, newest first.

11 June 2015
Date of the ADII circular that carries the customs-deposit rule, under which machines imported without a licence are held for not more than 45 days and then treated as abandoned. It is the only date in the legal evidence base stated by a document's own title, and the rule it carries is historical rather than confirmed current practice.
S3

Checked 7 October 2026. Newer than that? Look here:

Rules move between our checks. The official pages publish the change; the community pages are where someone notices it first.

Official pages

Bulletin Officiel, Secretariat General du Gouvernementofficial
The Moroccan government's legal-texts publisher, where a new drone decree or ministerial order would be published. It was the only reachable official source in the research evidence base, and it carried no drone or aviation text when checked.
Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII)official
The customs leaflets and circulars that carry every import rule in this brief live here. The domain refuses automated requests and did not resolve at all on the day of this check, so it has to be opened in an ordinary browser.
Ministere de l'Industrie et du Commerceofficial
The ministry that carries foreign trade, which is the department the customs leaflets name as the issuer of the import licence. Its notices to importers are where a change to the licence list would appear.
Agence Nationale de Reglementation des Telecommunications (ANRT)official
The telecoms regulator whose approval the radio rule turns on. No ANRT page was reached as its own domain in either research pass, only a customs page summarising it, so the visitor position on radio conformity is unresolved here.

Where pilots report

Bladi.netpress
The French-language Moroccan outlet that carried three of the seven confirmed cases: the 2015 Bni Nsar seizure, the 2023 Bab Sebta tourists and the 2023 Ouarzazate airport stop. It is where a French visitor's case surfaces first.
Akhbarona, societe sectionpress
Arabic-language outlet that carried the only confirmed Royal Gendarmerie field seizure (Chichaoua, 2019) and the Oued Zem conviction (2025). Field and provincial-court cases appear here and nowhere in English.
Yabiladipress
Carried both halves of the February 2025 Rabat case, the arrest and the sentence, and the original February 2015 report of the import-licence order.
Hespresspress
Carried the March 2015 customs mobilisation against incoming remotely controlled aircraft and the January 2022 parliamentary question on how few import licences are granted.
Auswartiges Amt, Morocco travel and security adviceofficial
The only foreign ministry whose Morocco page states the drone import position outright, and it is revised often. A change in Moroccan border practice tends to show up here before it shows up in English.
Global Affairs Canada, Moroccoofficial
The second advisory with an explicit drone line. Reading it alongside the German page shows whether two governments still agree on confiscation at entry.

Sources

Every page this brief rests on, with the date we opened it and, where the page carries one, the date printed on the document itself.

S1officialcould not be opened
Etrangers en visite au Maroc
Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII), Morocco customs · opened 2026-10-07
WAF rejects automated requests. Guidance leaflet, rule-summarising rather than the statute or an individual decision. Claimed official on the basis of the .gov.ma domain only, because no page rendered. No quote could be checked against the document. The updated date the research briefs print is the search index's last_updated value, not a date printed on the document.
S2officialcould not be opened
A VOTRE ARRIVEE AU MAROC (PDF)
Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII), Morocco customs · opened 2026-10-07
WAF rejects automated requests. Arrival leaflet. The second research pass cites this same documentId under both /dms/ and /dms_prod/; one of those paths is probably wrong and neither could be tested. No quote could be checked against the document.
S3officialcould not be opened
Circulaire, Rabat, 11 juin 2015
Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII), Morocco customs · document dated 2015-06-11 · opened 2026-10-07
WAF rejects automated requests. A circular, meaning an administrative instruction rather than the statute, and historical. This is the only date in the legal evidence base stated by a document's own title. No quote could be checked against the document.
S4officialcould not be opened
Upon Your Arrival in Morocco (PDF, English)
Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII), Morocco customs · opened 2026-10-07
WAF rejects automated requests. English edition of the arrival leaflet. Cited in the first research pass's source table but never used in its body, while the English confiscation wording is attributed there to the French leaflet. No quote could be checked against the document.
S5officialcould not be opened
Importation des equipements de telecommunication
Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII), Morocco customs · opened 2026-10-07
WAF rejects automated requests. Procedure page. The second research pass reports that it cites Decision ANRT/DG No. 12-04 of 29 December 2004, and gives two different query strings for the same page in its body and its source table. No quote could be checked against the document.
S6official
Bulletin Officiel, criteres de recherche
Secretariat General du Gouvernement, Morocco · opened 2026-10-07
The only reachable source in the entire legal evidence base, and it is a blank Bulletin Officiel query interface carrying no rule text and no drone content. It is cited here for the engine fields that nothing in the evidence base addresses: a search form is not a source, and the absence of a result in Morocco's own legal-texts publisher is the closest thing to evidence those fields have.
S7officialcould not be opened
A VOTRE DEPART DU MAROC / A VOTRE RETOUR
Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII), Morocco customs · opened 2026-10-07
WAF rejects automated requests. Recovery R1 in the verified brief: cited by the first research pass and read by neither pass. The URL path is reconstructed from the documentId the brief records plus the pattern of the other leaflets, and could not be tested. No quote could be checked against the document.
S8officialcould not be opened
A VOTRE DEPART DU MAROC
Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII), Morocco customs · opened 2026-10-07
WAF rejects automated requests. Recovery R2 in the verified brief: reported to list unmanned flying machines among goods that cannot be imported into Morocco, which is stricter than any rule either pass reports. Cited by both passes and read by neither. The URL path is reconstructed from the documentId and could not be tested.
S9officialcould not be opened
Guide MRE 2018
Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII), Morocco customs · opened 2026-10-07
WAF rejects automated requests. One of the six documents carrying recovery R3, the exclusion of drones from the children's-toys and personal-effects tolerance. The URL path is reconstructed from the documentId and could not be tested.
S10officialcould not be opened
Circulaire 6659
Administration des Douanes et Impots Indirects (ADII), Morocco customs · opened 2026-10-07
WAF rejects automated requests. A second of the six documents carrying recovery R3. The six are 59158, 85159, 72849, 92197, 94052 and 96035, and they carry the toys-tolerance exclusion across nine citations in the two research passes; two are cited here as representatives. The URL path is reconstructed from the documentId and could not be tested.
S11press
Un Espagnol tente de faire entrer un drone a Bni Nsar
Bladi.net · document dated 2015-05-05 · opened 2026-10-07
Un helicoptere radiocommande a ete saisi par les services de douane au poste frontiere de Bni Nsar [...] Le citoyen espagnol s'appretait a entrer en territoire marocain quand il a ete arrete par des douaniers.
The earliest confirmed case, and a land crossing rather than an airport.
S12press
Morocco Launches Investigations After Mexican Drone Flew Over Rabat Royal Palace
Morocco World News · document dated 2017-12-22 · opened 2026-10-07
a drone flew over the Royal palace, the constitutional court, as well as military and security premises [...] police confiscated the drone and opened an investigation to clarify the circumstances
S13press
Rabat: enquete sur un drone mexicain qui a survole le palais royal
H24info · document dated 2017-12-21 · opened 2026-10-07
la brigade judiciaire approfondit une enquete pour savoir comment cet engin a pu etre introduit au Maroc via un aeroport national
The same case in French. It is the only source in any pass that shows the border instruction to stop drones failing in practice, two years after it was given.
S14press
الدرك الملكي يحجز طائرة بدون طيار بهذا الإقليم
Akhbarona · document dated 2019-08-18 · opened 2026-10-07
منطقة مجاط التابعة لإقليم شيشاوة
The only confirmed Royal Gendarmerie field seizure in any language. The pilot was a Moroccan resident of Casablanca home for Eid al-Adha; the drone was confiscated and he was released on bail to appear before the public prosecutor.
S15press
Des touristes francais bloques au Maroc pour avoir utilise des drones
Bladi.net, relaying Sud Ouest · document dated 2023-03-16 · opened 2026-10-07
Les drones ont ete confisques par la douane a leur retour [...] Les deux touristes ecopent malgre tout d'une amende de 150 euros chacun
The only confirmed case with a customs fine amount, and the only confirmed case involving flights actually completed in the Sahara. The article names the four travellers and gives a 2 March departure and a 13 March intended return, so the event is mid-March 2023; the day is not inferred.
S16press
Vacances gachees au Maroc d'un Francais a cause d'un drone
Bladi.net · document dated 2023-06-18 · opened 2026-10-07
le jour de leur depart, le 29 avril, Julien est arrete a l'aeroport de Ouarzazate apres la decouverte dans ses bagages d'un drone
The event date, 29 April 2023, is stated in the article and differs from the publication date by seven weeks.
S17press
Rabat: Un youtubeur arrete pour avoir filme avec un drone le Complexe prince Moulay Abdellah
Yabiladi · document dated 2025-02-10 · opened 2026-10-07
Le procureur pres le tribunal de premiere instance de Rabat a ordonne, vendredi, le placement en detention [...] tournage sans autorisation et de possession illegale d'un drone
S18press
Rabat: Prison et amende pour l'auteur des images au drone du Complexe Moulay Abdellah
Yabiladi · document dated 2025-02-25 · opened 2026-10-07
Le Tribunal de premiere Instance de Rabat a condamne un YouTuber [...] quatre mois de prison [...] une amende de pres de 40 000 DH [...] la confiscation du drone, de quatre batteries et de la telecommande
The heaviest confirmed outcome in the set. The article does not state the defendant's nationality, so the case is not counted as a visitor case.
S19press
بوادي زم.. غرامة 16 مليون سنتيم لشابين بعد استخدام طائرة درون بدون ترخيص
Akhbarona · document dated 2025-09-05 · opened 2026-10-07
المحكمة الابتدائية بوادي زم، هذا الأسبوع، بسجن شابين ستة أشهر موقوفة التنفيذ وغرامة مالية قدرها 80 ألف درهم لكل منهما
The newest confirmed report in the set. The article says this week, so the judgment falls in the first week of September 2025, and it does not state the defendants' nationality.
S20press
الجمارك تعلن الحرب على الطائرات بدون طيار
Hespress · document dated 2015-03-05 · opened 2026-10-07
لن تسمح الجمارك بدخول أي طائرة من هذه الطائرات [...] تحت طائلة العقوبات القانونية
Press account of the customs posture at the start of the regime: all services mobilised to stop any remotely controlled aircraft entering without a prior import licence. It says nothing about returning a drone on departure.
S21press
Abdelouafi Laftit: 616 drones autorises a survoler le ciel marocain
Le360 · document dated 2022-03-08 · opened 2026-10-07
329 demandes d'importation permanente de drones [...] et accorde 287 autorisations d'importation temporaire
The Interior Minister answering a written parliamentary question. The Interior Ministry gives final approval after consulting the Industry Ministry for permanent imports or Customs for temporary ones, and the article states that licences go only to administrations, companies and public institutions for professional use, with no route named for private individuals or tourists. A temporary-admission authorisation route therefore exists and is used, and it is not open to a visitor. This is press and does not change any legal rule in this file.
S22press
برلمانية تسائل تداعيات حظر الدرون
Hespress · document dated 2022-01-17 · opened 2026-10-07
منذ سنة 2015 [...] مبررات الاقتصار على شركتين وإقصاء خمسين طلباً
A member of parliament asking why import licences had been limited to two companies while fifty applications were refused, and attributing the restriction to the Interior Ministry's central services since 2015. It is the clearest indication of how narrow the authorisation route is in practice.
S23press
مرحبا 2026.. الجمارك تحين دليل العبور وتحدد قائمة الممنوعات والإعفاءات
Barlamane · document dated 2026-06-30 · opened 2026-10-07
الطائرات بدون طيار «الدرونات» التي تعمل بمحرك وجهاز للتحكم عن بعد لا تعتبر ألعابا للأطفال، وإنما تخضع لإجراءات تنظيمية خاصة عند الاستيراد
Press report of the updated customs crossing guide for the 2026 Marhaba operation. It corroborates recovery R3, the exclusion of drones from the children's-toys tolerance, which the verified brief called the most useful traveller-facing fact in the evidence base. Being press, it does not lift the verdict on rule MA-R3.
S24press
Maroc: L'importation des drones et engins volants soumise a autorisation
Yabiladi · document dated 2015-02-26 · opened 2026-10-07
L'importation des objets volants sans pilote, propulses par un moteur et telecommandes (drones, modeles reduits d'avions...), est desormais soumise a l'obtention prealable d'une licence d'importation
The contemporaneous press account of the regime's start: a ministerial order of 6 February 2015 under Law 13/89, announced jointly by the Interior Ministry, the ministry delegated for foreign trade and customs, with exceptions for certain public administrations, companies and bodies for professional purposes subject to prior local authority authorisation. It is press, not official, and does not establish a legal rule here.
S25press
Drone, le joujou a double tranchant
H24info · document dated 2018-05-01 · opened 2026-10-07
les demandes d'importation doivent etre soumises au Ministere Delegue charge du commerce exterieur et ne seront satisfaites qu'apres l'accord du Ministere de l'Interieur
Agrees with the 2015 and 2022 reports on the application route and the Interior Ministry veto, and attributes the import restriction to a 2015 customs circular rather than to a decree. Four secondary pages in the practice report each give a different decree number, none of them linking a primary text; the press record is the more consistent account and is still not official.
S26official
Marokko: Reise- und Sicherheitshinweise, Einfuhrbestimmungen
Auswartiges Amt, Federal Foreign Office, Germany · document dated 2026-10-07 · opened 2026-10-07
Die Einfuhr von Flugdrohnen aller Art ist streng verboten. Zuwiderhandlungen werden strafrechtlich verfolgt; das Gerat wird vom Zoll beschlagnahmt.
A foreign ministry travel advisory. Official for Germany, not a Moroccan source: it states the customs practice a traveller should expect and never Moroccan law. The page names no exemption or special-case route for drones.
S27official
Morocco travel advice, Laws and culture
Global Affairs Canada · document dated 2026-05-26 · opened 2026-10-07
Drones and surveillance equipment are prohibited and will be confiscated by the authorities upon entry.
A foreign ministry travel advisory. Official for Canada, not a Moroccan source. It gives no procedure for importing, obtaining authorisation, or recovering a seized device.
S28official
Morocco travel advice: local laws and customs
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, United Kingdom · document dated 2026-08-19 · opened 2026-10-07
Opened and confirmed to contain no mention of drones at all, on the page a British traveller would read for exactly this question. Cited for the negative.
S29official
Conseils aux voyageurs, Maroc
France Diplomatie, Ministere de l'Europe et des Affaires etrangeres · document dated 2026-09-10 · opened 2026-10-07
Opened and confirmed to contain no mention of drones under entry and stay, customs or local legislation. French nationals are involved in two of the seven confirmed cases in this file, so the silence is worth knowing about. Cited for the negative.
S30official
Travel advice Morocco
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA), Switzerland · opened 2026-10-07
Opened and confirmed to contain no mention of drones. The page carries no single publication or last-updated date. Cited for the negative.
S31officialcould not be opened
Morocco International Travel Information
US Department of State · opened 2026-10-07
HTTP 403 to this client, and the US embassy customs page also returned 403. The search index reports that the page lists drones among restricted items and says they will be confiscated, but the page itself was not opened, so nothing here is confirmed from it. Open it in a browser to settle what the fourth advisory says.
S32secondary
Photography Etiquette in Morocco: The Complete Guide
Morocco Escape · document dated 2026-04-15 · opened 2026-10-07
Many tourists fly small drones in Morocco without incident [...] particularly in remote desert and mountain areas away from urban zones
The only source behind the claim that visitors fly without being stopped. A commercial photography guide that names no pilot, flight or date, and that on the same page says operators flying without a permit have been confiscated and fined. The research report typed all fifteen of its sources as operator reports; they are commercial travel and product pages, retyped here as secondary.
S33secondary
Morocco, arrival information
First Day Abroad · document dated 2026-08 · opened 2026-10-07
Drones are banned for recreational use and have been since 2015. All of them, including sub-250 g models. [...] Declared on arrival, it is held in storage for a fee and returned when you leave.
One of five secondary pages describing a declare-and-collect route that no official source and no press report confirms. It also states there is no tourist permit and that import licences are effectively never granted to visitors, which agrees with the parliamentary record.
S34secondary
Morocco Customs and Duty-Free: What to Know
Explora Morocco · document dated 2026-06 · opened 2026-10-07
The drone is held at the airport. You pay a 201 MAD storage fee and collect it on your way out of the country.
The only source for the 201 MAD storage fee. No official source mentions a storage fee at all.
S35secondary
Drone Laws in Morocco: Complete Guide 2026
Propel RC · document dated 2026-02-14 · opened 2026-10-07
I was taken to a separate room, questioned for 45 minutes, and fined 1,165 MAD.
Dropped as an incident. The case is a first-name-only study, Mike, a tourist from Canada, dated only to a month, with no document and no court. The same page prints three documented cases between 2020 and 2023 with no case names and a penalty table based on documented cases from 2019 to 2024 with no cases cited. Cited here only to record why the 1,165 MAD figure is not used.
S36secondary
持有無人機就違法！摩洛哥就是這樣嚴格！
Yalla Morocco · document dated 2026-01-05 · opened 2026-10-07
若境內被發現攜帶無人機且未事先申報，無人機將會被永久沒收
A Chinese-language travel page carrying the same 1,165 MAD figure as the Propel RC page, which is why that figure is treated as circulating rather than independently reported. It also adds a 45-day returnable-custody claim that echoes the 2015 circular's deposit period without citing it.
S37secondary
Can I fly a drone?
Derb · document dated 2026-05-10 · opened 2026-10-07
Tourist videos shot from drones over Ait Benhaddou, Chefchaouen, and the dunes have led to arrests as recently as 2024.
Dropped as an incident: a bare year with no month, name, court or case is not a date. The page also names Casablanca, Marrakech and Tangier as the airports where drones are searched for, and a Centre Cinematographique Marocain route eight weeks ahead for professional work, neither of which any official source supports.
S38presscould not be opened
J'ai glisse mon drone dans ma valise pour filmer nos vacances au Maroc: a la douane, on m'a annonce que je ne repartirais pas avec
Journal des Seniors, 20 Minutes · document dated 2026-08-03 · opened 2026-10-07
The domain is refused to this client, so the account could not be read and no event date could be established; it is therefore not listed as an incident. It is a French consumer-press first-person customs account and the single best lead in this pass for a real browser to open. The research report never cited it although it sits at citation 2 of its own result file.
S39secondarycould not be opened
Is Bringing a Drone Worth It for Travel Photography in Morocco Given the Strict Airspace Rules?
Alibaba product insights · document dated 2026-01-04 · opened 2026-10-07
HTTP 404. The page is gone, and with it the research report's claims of routine Gendarmerie spot checks at Erg Chebbi and Ait Benhaddou, its 2023 figures of 47 interventions, 12 confiscations and five prosecutions, and its Law 1-16-125 and Dahir 1-17-93 attribution. Cited here to record that the only source for those claims no longer exists.
S40secondary
Can You Bring a Drone on a Plane? Rules by Airline and Country
Pack Lightly · document dated 2026-09-04 · opened 2026-10-07
Drones are confiscated from foreign arrivals at both air and land borders and held until the traveller departs.
The only secondary page that mentions land borders, where two of the seven confirmed cases happened. Its held-until-departure half is the same unconfirmed claim the other travel pages make.