Belgian Drug Lord on Interpol’s Top 50 Faces 12-Year Sentence in Absentia

The trial opened last Monday before the Antwerp Criminal Court in the absence of Nordin El Hajjioui, a 34-year-old Belgian-Moroccan, suspected of running a criminal organization involved in the trafficking and sale of cocaine from Dubai. The public prosecutor’s office has requested 12 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros against him, reports Belga. The thirty-year-old is also accused of having provided weapons to members of his organization to protect the drug trafficking and carry out score-settling, the prosecutor said. The public prosecutor’s office also requested prison sentences ranging from three months to ten years against the 50 other defendants.

The Antwerp justice system had sentenced Nordin El Hajjioui in 2016 to 40 months of suspended prison for drug trafficking. However, the drug trafficker fled to Dubai, where he was briefly arrested. He paid a bail of 10,000 euros to regain his freedom. In January, a court in the United Arab Emirates rejected three extradition requests for the criminal to Belgium.