Antwerp drug baron extradited to Belgium from UAE
Antwerp drug baron Othman El Ballouti was extradited to Belgium on Sunday by the United Arab Emirates, along with two other fugitives. The three men are now being held in a Belgian prison.
El Ballouti, a notorious figure in the Antwerp underworld, was arrested in Dubai late last year. He was previously sentenced in absentia in Belgium to seven years for trafficking 840kg of cocaine. The 37-year-old is also linked to an 11-tonne shipment seized in 2021.
His arrest followed intelligence obtained via the decoded messaging service Sky ECC, which uncovered global drug networks that included dozens of Antwerp traffickers.
El Ballouti is the uncle of Firdaous, an 11-year-old girl who was killed in a shooting in Antwerp in 2023.
Also on Sunday’s flight were 29-year-old Giorgi F from Merksem and Mathias A, 30, from Antwerp.
“On Sunday 13 July, a special Defence flight was deployed to bring the three men concerned from Dubai to Belgium,” the federal police reported on Sunday evening. “This operation was coordinated by the Fugitive Active Search Team.”
Earlier this week, Gazet Van Antwerpen reported that the UAE had extradited another Antwerp criminal, Mohamed A, the right-hand man of drug baron Youssef Ben Azza, who lives in Morocco.
#FlandersNewsService | Illustration © BELGA PHOTO JONAS ROOSENS
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