Two Dutch men accused as drug criminal leaders disappeared after Dubai arrest

Two suspected Dutch drug criminals arrested in Dubai in November are no longer in custody and have disappeared from the radar, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) confirmed to NU.nl after a report by AD.

The suspects involved are Edin G. and Zouhair B., allegedly leaders in the international drug trade. Both are suspected of trafficking thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the Netherlands. G. allegedly also imported large shipments of raw materials for making amphetamine.

“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 said to NU.nl.

In November, Europol announced that 49 people, including G. and B., had been arrested in Dubai in a large-scale international action intended to show that there is no safe haven for drug traffickers. The European police organization described the suspects as a “super cartel.”

But now, at least the two Dutch suspects have gotten away again.

According to the OM, it requested 40-year-old Dutch-Bosnian Edin G.s extradition from the United Arab Emirates “on time and in the right way” last year. But he was released from custody at the end of last year before being extradited to the Netherlands. “We are working to find out what went wrong,” an OM spokesperson said to the newspaper.

The extradition process against the 37-year-old Zouhair B. is still ongoing, but he is no longer in custody. “It is not clear to us whether he has been released or whether he got out on bail,” the OM spokesperson said. “That’s what we’re trying to find out.”