He was promoted to General during the Green March in 1975, and took charge of the Moroccan Armed Forces in the Southern Zone, where the military were fighting the Polisario Front.

His father, Lahcen Dlimi, was a rural aristocrat falling over the Middle Eastern umbrella term of Pasha for his land-owning nature during the Protectorate Era.

[5] Ahmed Dlimi headed the Moroccan security services and played an important role as a military supporter of King Hassan II during the Years of lead.

He was reportedly connected to the "disappearance" of the exiled opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka, leader of the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces (UNPF) and of the non-aligned Tricontinental Conference, in 1965, in Paris, France[8][9][10] According to the first judicial investigation, Ahmed Dlimi was in Paris, along with General Oufkir, at the time of Ben Barka's kidnapping.

[11] Former dissident and prisoner Ali Bourequat has also directly accused Dlimi of taking part in Ben Barka's assassination.

After the Green March in 1975, during which Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, General Dlimi became head of staff of the Moroccan Armed Forces in this territory.

Rami alleged that he had clandestinely met with Dlimi in Stockholm in December 1982, and that they were preparing a coup against Hassan II, due for July 1983.

[16] Dlimi was allegedly part of the "Independent Officers" who intended to overthrow the monarchy, in order to put an end to the regime's corruption and human rights violations.

[17] Rami wrote that: "Hassan's closest circle, which also counts foreign secret agents, very well knows the circumstances of Dlimi's death.