“High-level” cocaine trafficker targeted by the U.S. is arrested in Dubai

An alleged drug trafficker wanted in connection with an international drug smuggling operation through the Belgian port of Antwerp has been arrested, Dubai police said Monday.

Othman El Ballouti, who was sanctioned by the U.S. last year, was held over an international arrest warrant issued by Belgian authorities.

“El Ballouti has been handed over to Dubai Public Prosecution for legal proceedings related to extradition,” a police statement said.

It wasn’t immediately clear if El Ballouti had a lawyer.

El Ballouti, 37, was believed to be living in the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdom on the Arabian Peninsula also home to Abu Dhabi. He was sanctioned in 2023 by the U.S. Treasury which described him as “a high-level drug trafficker.”

“El Ballouti manages an international criminal organization that smuggles significant quantities of cocaine via shipping containers through the port of Antwerp in Belgium for wider distribution throughout Europe,” the Treasury Department said at the time. “Othman El Ballouti’s money laundering and narcotics supply chain networks are linked to businesses based in the People’s Republic of China, as well as South American cocaine suppliers.”

At the time of the sanctions being issued, the U.S. made a point to list El Ballouti’s address as a high-end apartment complex in downtown Dubai, near the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

With the UAE now heading the international policing body Interpol, the country has faced renewed questioning over its lax checks on money laundering and reluctance to extradite suspects. That has only increased as Russian money flows into the nation amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

In response, the UAE has made several high profile arrests to extradite suspects back to the West.

The arrest marks the latest in a string of major cocaine busts across the globe in recent days. On Friday, Russia said it had arrested suspected members of a Colombian cartel trying to smuggle tens of millions of dollars worth of cocaine into Europe. Meanwhile, authorities in the Dominican Republic confiscated nearly 9.5 tons of cocaine from a banana shipment at the country’s most important seaport. 

The day before that, Portuguese police said they had dismantled “one of the largest” cocaine laboratories in Europe as part of an operation that led to seven arrests and the seizure of some 1,500 kilograms of the drug.

In late November, police in the Balkans arrested 11 alleged members of a criminal syndicate responsible for smuggling cocaine from South America to Europe. Also last month, the Colombian Navy said authorities from dozens of countries seized over 225 metric tons of cocaine in a six-week mega-operation where they unearthed a new Pacific trafficking route from South America to Australia.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.