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Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands, fights threats from large-scale criminal and terrorist networks.
Between Nov. 8 and 19, Europol, along with law enforcement agencies from six countries, took down a “super cartel” that they claim controls one third of Europe’s cocaine trafficking.
Participating law enforcement included the Spanish Civil Guard, the French National Police, Federal Judicial Police Brussels, Federal Judicial Police Antwerp, National Police National Criminal Investigations Division and Police Unit Rotterdam, the Ministry of Interior and Dubai Police Force in the UAE, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
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Raids carried out across Europe and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of “Operation Desert Light” resulted in 49 suspects being arrested. They included 13 arrests in Spain, six arrests in France, 10 arrests in Belgium, 14 arrests in the Netherlands, and six “high-value” targets in Dubai.
The New York Post reports that one of the suspects arrested in Dubai is a “suspected drug lord with both Dutch and Moroccan nationality” who “allegedly imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the Netherlands in 2020 and 2021.”
Spain’s Civil Guard reported that the leader of the cartel was identified as a British citizen who relocated to Dubai after feeling Spain to avoid being arrested.
Over 33 tons (66,000 pounds) of illegal drugs were also confiscated during raids in Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UAE.
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“In the framework of intelligence activities underway with its operational counterparts, Europol developed reliable intelligence concerning a drug trafficking cartel flooding Europe with cocaine. The main targets, who used encrypted communications to organize the shipments, were identified in the participating authorities,” read a statement from Europol.
“Europol has since then hosted multiple coordination meetings in the past two years in order to bring together the different countries working on the same targets to establish a joint strategy to bring down the whole network.”
“This coordinated clampdown sends a strong message to criminals seeking sanctuary from law enforcement,” the Europol statement concluded.