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Friday, March 29, 2024

‘Super-Cartel’ of Cocaine Destroyed in Dubai and Europe: Europol

According to Europol, police have demolished a huge drug “super-cartel” that was in charge of a third of the cocaine trafficking in Europe.

49 people have been detained across several nations, including six key suspects in Dubai. According to a statement released on Monday by the European Union’s police agency, the massive multinational operation netted 30 tons of the substance and resulted in arrests in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Spain. The crackdown, which included a Dutch “very big fish” located in Dubai, primarily targeted cocaine entering Europe through the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp.

According to Europol, the drug dealers who were high-value targets had banded together to establish a “super cartel” that was in charge of about one-third of the cocaine traffic in Europe. Over 30 tons of cocaine were confiscated by law enforcement throughout the investigations, demonstrating the extent of the trafficking of cocaine into Europe under the suspects’ control and direction.

According to Europol, Dubai had detained four “high-value” suspects, two of them were related to France, two to the Netherlands, and two to Spain. In Belgium, ten people were detained; in France, six; and in Spain, thirteen. According to the Hague-based organization, 14 further suspects were detained in the Netherlands in 2021 as part of the same operation.

The arrests were the most recent in a string that began after investigators last year hacked into highly secure encrypted telephones used by organized crime networks, according to Europol. After secretly listening in on what were intended to be encrypted discussions between drug dealers, police shut down the SKY ECC phone platform last year. Prosecutors in the Netherlands announced they would ask for the accused’ extradition from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A 37-year-old man who holds dual nationalities from the Netherlands and Morocco is one of the suspects. He was detained for allegedly bringing thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the Netherlands in 2020 and 2021.

The Dutch public prosecution service stated in a statement that “these are serious criminal offenses about international drug trafficking, primarily from South America via the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam.” The other, it claimed, was a 40-year-old dual Dutch and Bosnian national. Under the condition of anonymity, a Europol source informed the AFP news agency that “one of the Dutch suspects is an incredibly big fish.”

The suspects from the Netherlands were allegedly connected to Ridouan Taghi, who is currently facing prosecution in the Netherlands after being detained in Dubai in 2019. Taghi is charged with murder and is accused of leading a significant cocaine smuggling organization out of Amsterdam.

Following the discovery of 698 kilos (1,539 pounds) of cocaine in a container in the port of Valencia on November 8, Spain’s Guardia Civil reported that a total of 13 people had been detained in Barcelona, Madrid, and Malaga.

Following an attempted arrest in Spain, the leader of the smuggling enterprise, a British national, escaped to Dubai and continued to oversee operations from there, according to a statement. It stated that his Panamanian supplier also resided in Dubai and that the cocaine was brought from Panama in Central America.

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