Dubai police announced Monday the arrest of Othman El Ballouti, a suspected high-level drug trafficker accused of orchestrating an international cocaine smuggling operation via Belgium’s port of Antwerp. The arrest follows an international warrant issued by Belgian authorities.
El Ballouti, 37, was apprehended in Dubai and has been handed over to Dubai’s Public Prosecution for extradition proceedings, police said in a statement. It remains unclear whether El Ballouti has legal representation at this time.
The United States Treasury Department sanctioned El Ballouti in 2023, identifying him as a “high-level drug trafficker” who oversees a criminal network responsible for smuggling substantial quantities of cocaine into Europe. The network allegedly operates by using shipping containers routed through Antwerp, one of Europe’s largest ports.
The U.S. Treasury had linked El Ballouti’s operations to a global supply chain involving South American cocaine suppliers and money laundering networks based in the People’s Republic of China. The sanction notice had even listed El Ballouti’s Dubai residence, a luxury apartment near the iconic Burj Khalifa.
The arrest comes at a time when the United Arab Emirates, which presides over the international policing agency Interpol, faces scrutiny for allegedly insufficient oversight of money laundering activities and reluctance to extradite criminal suspects.
Pressure on the UAE has intensified as Russian financial flows into the country have surged during Moscow’s ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In response to international criticism, the UAE has undertaken a series of high-profile arrests and extraditions in recent years to demonstrate its commitment to combating organized crime.
The arrest of El Ballouti underscores both the transnational nature of drug smuggling and the UAE’s evolving role in global law enforcement.
