European drug traffickers such as Sean McGovern of the Irish Kinahan cartel or the Spanish Alejandro Salgado Vega, alias “El Tigre”, They lived lavishly in the Emirate of Dubai (United Arab Emirates) with total impunity. But, progress in judicial cooperation may lead many of them to seek other refuges.
This emirate was for years the ideal refuge for some of Europe’s biggest drug traffickers due to limited judicial cooperation, which implied a low risk of being extradited, according to European researchers and judges interviewed. Thus, this 35 km2 territory of the Gulf served as a rearguard for trafficking and money laundering activities.
Europol, the European Union Agency for Police Cooperation, described the city in April as a “remote coordination center”where traffickers live openly and can launder their assets through luxury goods and properties.
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Police say the big European bosses pull the strings from the comfort of Dubai, far from ports like Antwerp in Belgium, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Le Havre in France, where drugs enter the continent.
Enjoying the low crime rate in DubaiWithout the worries of a possible settling of scores, the drug lords operated safely, doing business and contacting other major global traffickers in the hookah cafes, according to judicial sources.
However, this situation may be changing. In October, McGovern, considered the right-hand man of Irish drug trafficker Daniel Kinahan, was arrested on an extradition warrant from Dublin, accused of murder and being the leader of a criminal organization.
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McGovern’s arrest in Dubai followed the arrest in July of Faissal Taghi, accused of drug trafficking and murder in the Netherlands, and his extradition some time later. His father, Ridouan Taghi, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Amsterdam in February and is considered the “Mocro Maffia” ringleader. In March, Belgian Nordin El Hajjioui was sent to his country in handcuffs.
“The United Arab Emirates is committed to working with all its international partners to disrupt and deter all forms of global illicit financing“said a government official.
Dubai, a financial paradise where European drug traffickers live with “total impunity”
Dubai, a nerve center of global tradewhich is between Europe and Asia, has one of the airports with the most frequent flights in the world. It has also become a favorite place for sports stars and celebrities looking to weather the winter in their countries.
But, for a decade, it also became a hideout for Europeans wanted by justice in their countries, according to a French magistrate.
The head of the Kinahan cartel and Alejandro Salgado Vega -considered by the authorities as “the most important drug trafficker of Spanish origin globally” – are some of those accused of being part of major criminal plots who established their residence in Dubsi.
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Francisco Torres, head of the elite unit of the Civil Guard in charge of investigating organized crime, affirms that in Dubai these people wanted by justice do not hide, nor do they live under false identities.
“They lead a life of luxury in full view of everyone, with total impunity”he summarized.
In their golden exile of Dubai, drug traffickers can manage their operations in complete safety, far from the wave of crime and violence that currently devastates the large ports of the Old Continent, said European investigators and magistrates interviewed by the AFP agency.
In 2022, Operation Desert Light confirmed the existence of a “super cartel” in Dubai where six “drug barons” linked to plots in France, the Netherlands and Spain joined forces to jointly control a third of the cocaine trafficking that reaches Europe, Europol reported.
Abdelkader “Bibi” Bouguettaia is a good example. This Franco-Algerian trafficker, the subject of an Interpol red arrest alert, left the port of Le Havre in France and is accused of coordinating the entry of tons of cocaine into Europe from Dubai.
Bouguettaia, sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison in France in 2023 for importing a container with 599 kilos of cocaine intercepted in Antwerp, is suspected of having organized the shipment of 2.5 tons of drugs destined for Le Havre.
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He and his partner lived in two apartments on the upper floors of a luxury complex in the marina, a few hundred meters from the Palm Jumeirah island, according to excerpts from the interrogation of a former close friend.
According to this source, Bouguettaia, who owns luxury cars, is an assidue of hookah barsthe swimming pools of the port’s luxury hotels and lavish restaurants such as the Nusr-Et Steakhouse by the well-known Turkish chef Nusret Gokce.
In the rich Gulf emirate, considered a tax haven and a center for money laundering, criminals find ways to get rid of dirty money that they would hardly be able to use in Europe.
He ancestral banking system”hawala“ of the emirate – an informal channel of funds transfer through service providers, which is based on trust – allows cash to be transferred without the money actually moving.
This makes it possible for drug lords to make large investments in property and other large businesses, leaving almost no trace.
In Dubai, drug traffickers can “set up a luxury car concierge company” and above all make real estate investments, indicated a specialist in the fight against money laundering in the Emirates.
“A building can be sold in 15 minutes. Half of the world’s cranes are in Dubai“he highlighted.
In this emirate, where 90% of its 3.5 million inhabitants are expatriates, there is an advantageous tax regime. For years there has been an escalation in real estate prices and the construction business has built skyscrapers, ultra-safe luxury villas and even lavish artificial islands.
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The economy of Dubai, where there is less oil than in the rich neighboring emiratesis based on its flourishing real estate market whose transactions set a record of 132,000 million euros in 2022.
In this market, another Tarik “The Bison” Kerbouci, a fugitive from French justice accused of trafficking 3.3 tons of cocaine, established himself as a “real estate agent,” according to a French judicial source.
The Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) studied a leak of property records, noting that Daniel and his wife own several real estate properties including a property near Palm Jumeirah and another estate purchased in six million euros in Emirates Hills that can now be worth twice as much.
“Absurd” and “impossible to comply” legal obstacles
The slowness of extradition processes also contributed to the settlement of criminals in the emirate.
Kerbouci was arrested in Dubai in July 2022but he was released 40 days later, once the deadline to accept the extradition request in due form had expired.
Bouguettaia also benefited from the slowness of the process when he was arrested in October last year and was released in January.
“El Tigre” was also released after having been detained in 2022, indicated his lawyer.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed extradition treaties with France in 2007, with Spain two years later, with Belgium and the Netherlands in 2021, and with Ireland this year. But so far only a small number of high-level drug traffickers have been extradited.
Torres, of the Spanish Civil Guard, noted that Dubai’s demands are often “absurd” and “impossible to fulfill” and cites as an example the need to send all original documents with each page signed by the judge.
France identified nearly 30 suspects in Dubai.
“None of these traffickers have been extradited, although some were arrested,” lamented Jean-Noël Bonnieu, an official at the French Foreign Ministry in a hearing before the Senate in January.
The French authorities pointed out the “extreme rigor of the Emirati side when it comes to interpreting the documents that must be presented and the deadlines.”
Of the nearly 20 suspects required by Belgium, only four have been extradited since 2021, according to official figures.
But this year there has been progress in judicial cooperation. For example, a French magistrate with experience in organized crime proceedings was sent to neighboring Abu Dhabi emirate, and Belgium appointed a judge in October to work as a direct liaison with the Emirates.
Since then, Bouguettaia was arrested again along with Othman El Ballouti, a suspect that Belgium had been trying to extradite for years, official sources reported.
The UAE has been trying to show efforts to improve transparency since the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that fights money laundering included it in the “grey list” of countries subject to enhanced surveillance in 2022.
But a French judicial source stated that Dubai has never embargoed”no assets to any foreign financial authority“despite the large influx of Russian businessmen since the invasion against Ukraine began almost three years ago.
Still, some claim that Dubai’s criminal elite could already be looking for their next refuge.
“With all the attention focused on Dubai (…) eyes are turning to Türkiye as another possible center of international criminal activities“declared a Dutch judicial source.
“Some are looking towards North Africa, Indonesia and Bali,” according to a French money laundering specialist.
Kerbouci has already fled and is a fugitive, probably in another destination in the Middle East or North Africa, said European sources who believe he is living under a false identity.
AFP
2024-12-16 19:40:00