Police arrested at the very least 49 individuals in a number of international locations within the large worldwide operation, seizing 30 tonnes of medication.
Police have dismantled an enormous medication “super-cartel” that managed a 3rd of Europe’s cocaine commerce, arresting 49 individuals in numerous international locations, together with six chief suspects in Dubai, in line with Europol.
The massive worldwide operation seized 30 tonnes of the drug and led to arrests in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain, the European Union’s police company stated in an announcement on Monday.
The crackdown – which concerned one “extraordinarily large fish” from the Netherlands who was based mostly in Dubai – largely focused cocaine coming from South America by the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp.
“The drugpins, thought of as high-value targets by Europol, had come collectively to kind what was generally known as a ‘tremendous cartel’ which managed round one-third of the cocaine commerce in Europe,” Europol stated.
“The size of cocaine importation into Europe underneath the suspects’ management and command was large and over 30 tonnes of medication had been seized by legislation enforcement over the course of the investigations.”
‘Excessive-value’ suspects
Europol stated Dubai had arrested two “high-value” suspects linked to France, two related to the Netherlands and one other two linked to Spain.
Ten individuals had been arrested in Belgium, six in France and 13 in Spain. One other 14 individuals had been arrested in 2021 within the Netherlands as a part of the identical operation, the Hague-based organisation stated.
The arrests had been the most recent in a sequence that adopted a police hack of refined encrypted telephones utilized by organised crime networks final yr, Europol stated.
Police took down the SKY ECC cellphone platform final yr after secretly utilizing it to pay attention to what had been purported to be safe communications between drug traffickers.
Dutch prosecutors stated they'd request the extradition of the suspects from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
One of many suspects is a 37-year-old man with twin Dutch and Moroccan nationality, who was held for allegedly importing hundreds of kilogrammes of cocaine into the Netherlands in 2020 and 2021.
“These are critical legal offences pertaining to worldwide drug trafficking, primarily from South America by way of the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam,” the Dutch public prosecution service stated in an announcement.
‘Extraordinarily large fish’
The opposite was a 40-year-old twin Dutch Bosnian nationwide, it stated.
“One of many Dutch suspects is an especially large fish,” a Europol supply instructed the AFP information company on situation of anonymity.
The Dutch suspects had been allegedly linked to Ridouan Taghi, who was arrested in Dubai in 2019 and is now on trial within the Netherlands, the supply stated.
Taghi is accused of working an enormous Amsterdam-based cocaine smuggling group and faces expenses together with homicide.
Spain’s Guardia Civil stated a complete of 13 individuals had been arrested in Barcelona, Madrid and Malaga on November 8 after 698 kilogrammes (1,539 kilos) of cocaine had been present in a container within the port of Valencia.
The pinnacle of the smuggling operation, a British nationwide, fled to Dubai after an tried arrest in Spain and was persevering with to direct operations from there, it stated in an announcement.
The cocaine was imported from Panama in Central America and his Panamanian provider additionally lived in Dubai, it stated.
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