Until their arrests — and the smashing of a massive Russian-run money laundering operation based there this month — the Gulf emirate was a haven for some of Europe’s biggest drug traffickers.
For years major drug barons have brazenly run their operations out of the city’s skyscrapers and luxury villas without fear of extradition. Limited judicial cooperation from the local authorities meant they had little to fear, European investigators and magistrates told AFP.
Europol described the city as a “remote coordination hub” for Europe’s drugs trade, where traffickers live openly and launder their money through luxury goods and real estate.
Far from the European ports like Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre where their drugs transit, police say the barons pull the strings from the comfort of Dubai, ruling by fear and extreme violence from one of the safest cities in the world.
Ironically, Dubai’s low crime rate means they can operate there in security, doing deals and networking with other global narcotics players in the city’s cafes and shisha bars.
However, the tide may now be turning.
In October, McGovern — the right-hand-man of Irish drugs lord Daniel Kinahan — was arrested on an extradition warrant from Dublin, accused of murder and being a leader of a criminal organisation.
The US Treasury calls the Kinahan cartel a “threat to the entire licit economy”, with Washington slapping a $15-million bounty on the heads of its three leading members.
McGovern’s arrest in Dubai followed the extradition in July of Faissal Taghi to the Netherlands on drug trafficking and murder-related charges. Belgian drug lord Nordin El Hajjioui was sent back in handcuffs to Brussels in March.
“The UAE is committed to working with all its international partners to disrupt and deter all forms of global illicit finance,” a government official told AFP.
‘Total impunity’
A crossroads linking Europe and Asia, Dubai has one of the world’s busiest ports and airports — and is a favourite winter sunspot for sports stars and influencers.
But for more than a decade, it has also been home to a rogue’s gallery of European crime figures.
Cartel boss Kinahan and “El Tigre”, the Spanish cocaine kingpin Alejandro Salgado Vega, are among the most notorious to have settled there.
Kinahan’s associate, Ridouan Taghi — Faissal’s father — was also a longtime Dubai denizen till the fearsome gangster was jailed for life for a string of hits in February after a mega trial in a high-security Amsterdam court known as De Bunker.
