Suspected drug trafficker wanted in international drug trafficking operation across the Belgian port of Antwerp was arrested, Dubai police announced on Monday.
Othman El Ballouti, who was sanctioned by the United States last year, was arrested under an international arrest warrant issued by Belgian authorities.
“El Ballouti was handed over to the Dubai Public Prosecutor’s Office for legal proceedings related to his extradition,” said a police statement.
It was not immediately clear whether El Ballouti had an attorney.
El Ballouti, 37, was likely living in the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula that is also home to Abu Dhabi. He was sanctioned in 2023 by the US Treasury which described him as “a high-level drug trafficker”.
“El Ballouti manages an international criminal organization that smuggles large quantities of cocaine via shipping containers through the port of Antwerp, Belgium for wider distribution throughout Europe,” the Treasury Department said at the time . “Othman El Ballouti’s money laundering and narcotics supply networks are linked to companies based in the People’s Republic of China, as well as South American cocaine suppliers.”
US Treasury Department
At the time of imposing the sanctions, the United States made a point of indicating that El Ballouti’s address was an upscale apartment complex in downtown Dubai, near the Burj Khalifa, the tallest world building.
With the UAE now leading the international police agency Interpol, the country is once again facing questions over its lax money laundering controls and reluctance to extradite suspects. This has only increased as Russian money flows into the country amid Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
In response, the UAE made several high-profile arrests to extradite suspects to the West.
The arrest is the latest in a series of major cocaine-related seizures around the world in recent days. Friday, Russia said he had arrested suspected members of a Colombian cartel attempting to smuggle cocaine worth tens of millions of dollars into Europe. Meanwhile, authorities in the Dominican Republic have confiscated nearly 9.5 tonnes of cocaine of a cargo of bananas in the country’s most important seaport.
The day before, Portuguese police said they had dismantled “one of the largest” cocaine laboratories in Europe in an operation which resulted in seven arrests and the seizure of some 1,500 kilograms of the drug.
At the end of November, the police in the Balkans arrested 11 suspected members of a criminal syndicate responsible for trafficking cocaine from South America to Europe. Also last month, the The Colombian Navy said Authorities in dozens of countries seized more than 225 tons of cocaine during a six-week mega-operation in which they uncovered a new trafficking route across the Pacific from South America to the Australia.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.