“Socalj” for Borderland Beat
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Two alleged drug traffickers, one said to be a leader and another a high-ranking member of the European “Super Cartel” have been released just two months after being arrested in Dubai. The release of the two men, reported yesterday for the first time by Dutch media, has shocked and angered Dutch authorities who believed the significant US involvement in the case would force the UAE to deport or extradite both men.
In late November Edin “Tito” Gačanin, a Dutch-Bosnian national described by the DEA as one of the Top 50 drug traffickers in the world, and Zuhair Belkhair, a Dutch-Moroccan accused of trafficking huge amounts of cocaine through the port of Rotterdam, were among 49 suspects arrested in a massive, highly-publicized, international police operation. Their arrests took place in Dubai.
But, it has been revealed that authorities in Dubai have released Gačanin and Belkhair, leaving officials baffled.
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| Edin “Tito” Gačanin |
Gačanin, 40, nicknamed “Tito”, was one of the key leaders of the so-called “Super Cartel” comprised of Irish, British, Italian, Bosnian, Dutch, and Chilean traffickers, until his arrest during an operation police dubbed “Desert Light”. He also led the “Tito and Dino Clan” organization. He obtained cocaine from the now-dismantled Colombian Norte del Valle Cartel and then independent Peruvian producers, according to a Bosnian police official. He was initially based in the Netherlands, is also a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was arrested in Dubai during the operation.
Edin’s father Miralem Gačanin was connected with a person named Arnoldus Josephus Van Horsen in Holland. In 2008, Edin’s father passed away and Edin began to take over his affairs. The Dutchman Van Horsen connected Edin with several important people and his work in trafficking started. Edin had hired Bosnian special forces men to be his bodyguards. He donated equipment to the entire police force unit via the government in Sarajevo.
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Yet he was freed completely, neither on bail nor facing extradition, on December 29, 2022. Claims in the Dutch media stated that the Netherlands failed to provide proper extradition paperwork within 40 days, despite Dutch prosecutors arguing the paperwork was properly submitted on time. “We know the stories about the documents being submitted too late. That is not true. We are working to find out what exactly is the cause,” spokesman Wim de Bruin told Het Parool.
“At the moment, the client has indeed been released after payment of bail. He is awaiting extradition proceedings,” Weski told the newspaper Het Parool. Guy Weski is the son of Inez Weski, the advocate lawyer for Ridouan Taghi, another Super Cartel figure in the Netherlands.
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| The Weski law firm in the Netherlands has represented several figures of the Super Cartel and other criminals including Dutch arms dealers with the ‘Ndrangheta and other traffickers. |
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In the past, UAE and Dubai authorities have been quietly criticized by prosecutors in multiple countries for allowing a slew of major cocaine traffickers from Ireland, the UK, Morocco, and the Netherlands to operate openly with little fear of arrest. As a result, over the last year, the UAE has begun clamping down on mega-rich criminals using Dubai as a bolt-hole and to launder money.
Adding to the tension between the UAE and the Netherlands, it seems, according to the Dutch prosecutors, that both men have disappeared and might have left Dubai for some unknown location. Belkhair theoretically cannot leave the UAE while the extradition process remains ongoing, while it appears that Gacanin no longer faces any legal issues in the UAE and could travel freely to another country. “We don’t know where the two suspects are now. We have no information about their whereabouts and their possibilities to cross the border,” an OM spokesperson told the online news portal NU.nl.
“Dubai keeps insisting that Belgium and Holland need to negotiate a proper treaty,” said the Belgian cop. “But they have moved incredibly slowly despite our requests, then use the excuse that there’s no official agreement or procedure. And so these cocaine bosses remain free.”
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Other Leaders of the Super Cartel
Gačanin and Irish mob boss Daniel Kinahan, are now the only major members of what the DEA described as a “Super Cartel”, to remain free. The other members, Dutch trafficker Ridouan Taghi, Ricardo Riquelme Vega “Rico the Chilean” and Italian Camorra leader Raffaele Imperiale, all spotted alongside Kinahan and Gacanin at the Irish man’s 2017 wedding in Dubai by a confidential informant, have since been jailed or are on trial.