Belgium Drug Kingpin Dubai 27 Years Cocaine Trafficking
Extradited last summer from Dubai, Othman El Ballouti, 38, has just had his convictions confirmed. Belgian justice has imposed twenty-seven years imprisonment on him for his major role in a vast international cocaine trafficking operation.
The Antwerp correctional court sealed the fate of this man from Borgerhout by ordering his immediate arrest. Prosecuted for importing more than 12 tonnes of narcotics, directing a criminal organization, and money laundering, he faces fines of 456,000 euros and nearly 3 million euros in confiscations, reports Nieuwsblad. These heavy sentences confirm two previous default judgments against him, marking the end of his fugitive status.
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The turning point in this judicial investigation dates back to 2021 with the decryption of the Sky ECC communication network, where investigators identified him behind the pseudonyms "Patron" and "El Professor". Before the judges, the thirty-something claimed his innocence, justifying his Dubai real estate assets of 25 million euros through success in the restaurant business. His lawyers, Dimitri De Béco and Nathalie Buisseret, contested the exploitation of this telephone data, stating: "No message proves that this is actually our client".
These arguments failed to convince the magistrates, who validated the digital evidence. Luc De Cleir, spokesperson for the courts, clarified that the court rejected procedural objections concerning Sky ECC, finding the facts established for the first sentence of seven years. He added that for the second conviction of twenty years, the opposition was annulled because the defendant had been validly represented by a lawyer "after the summons was served at his registered address".
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The accused’s circle moreover illustrates the climate of tension linked to organized crime, with two brothers already convicted for drug offenses. In 2016, his younger brother Younes had been kidnapped by Parisian criminals, an abduction that the main interested party then attributed to simple extortion. More tragically, 2023 was marked by the death of his niece Firdaous, 11, shot during a shooting targeting his sister’s home in Merksem.
