British lorry driver ‘is arrested in Morocco for trying to smuggle 100,000 face masks worth £2.6million out of the country’

A British lorry driver has been arrested in Morocco after trying to smuggle 100,000 face masks worth £2.6 million out of the country, reports suggest.

The trucker was held in the Port of Tanger Med, a cargo port located about 25 miles east of the Moroccan city of Tangier, according to local reports.

The unnamed driver was planning to take the face masks back to the UK so he could sell them for 30 euros, or £26, each following shortages and price hikes caused by coronavirus fears, local media reports.

He was yesterday arrested by customs officers, website le360.ma stated, and is currently believed to be in police custody, although there has been no official comment from the authorities,

On Monday, a Moroccan man living in Italy who is currently at a hospital in Casablanca became the first case of coronavirus in the country.

Investigations are underway at several hospitals across Spain following the theft of thousands of face masks after price hikes and shortages caused by the deadly outbreak.

Regional health chiefs are probing the theft of 5,000 face masks from Valladolid University Clinic Hospital in the latest incidents to emerge.

He was yesterday arrested by customs officers, website le360.ma stated, and is currently believed to be in police custody, although there has been no official comment from the authorities. Pictured: He was first held in the Port of Tanger Med

Around 250 boxes containing 20 face masks each are said to have vanished from different operating theatres and hospital floors, prompting speculation the thefts are an ‘inside job’ perpetrated by staff.

The latest incident comes on the back of news a doctor at a Costa del Sol hospital faces disciplinary proceedings after allegedly being caught trying to take 300 face masks from a storeroom.

A spokesman for the Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital in Malaga confirmed an internal probe had been launched.

The unnamed medic, described as a trauma doctor, reportedly claimed when he was intercepted that he wanted to take the face masks to the village where he lived and hand them round to worried friends and neighbours.