Throughout this brief story, numerous important revelations will center on Othman El Ballouti, a Belgian businessman who is known to be a drug trafficker. You will need to carefully read all of my comments if you are interested in finding out about his activities and others who are connected to him.
Othman El Ballouti, Belgium: In particular, who is he? What made him turn to selling drugs?
In several of its reports, the US Treasury Department refers to Othman El Ballouti Belgium as a “high-level drug trafficker”. His group, which operates globally, is in charge of smuggling cocaine into Belgium through the Antwerp port for eventual distribution across the continent.
Younes El Ballouti, Othamn’s younger brother, offers to help him with his profession. The transfer of funds earned through illicit means through companies established in the People’s Republic of China is referred to as “laundering”. Their involvement in the distribution of illicit substances has made them a target for Belgian authorities.
Othman El Ballouti Belgium, a businessman who has escaped Belgian police’s grasp since 2016, has been identified by Belgian tabloids as one of the continent’s leading cocaine traffickers.
They have good cause to believe he has fled to Dubai. As per the discoveries made in a recently unearthed real estate database, someone named Othman El Ballouti Belgium would suddenly be able to reside in the emirate.
The Belgian media had claimed that Othman El Ballouti, a Belgian, operated a sizable cocaine import company out of the port of Antwerp. However, Ballouti has denied any involvement in such activities. This charge was leveled.
He was listed as one of the most influential drug dealers in the Low Countries and was claimed to have connections to rival organizations in many of their publications.
Gazet van Antwerpen claims that the total estimated worth of his holdings is at least 100 million euros ($118 million). This data is derived from numerous sources.
The accusation made by Belgian media that Othman El Ballouti Belgium operates a sizable cocaine import company out of the port of Antwerp, Belgium, is denied. In their coverage, they frequently refer to him as one of the most potent drug traffickers in the area, and their reporting implies that he is connected to other rival gangs.
Sources have told Gazet van Antwerpen that his assets are worth at least one hundred million euros, or roughly 118 million dollars, in total.
The Gazet van Antwerpen reports that he was detained at the Brussels airport in 2016 when the authorities connected funds he had given to an Antwerp-based Muslim organization to “illegal sources.” El Ballouti left the nation after being granted conditional freedom, based on the information provided in the article.
He was last seen in Dubai, according to the chief detective of the Federal Police of Antwerp’s drug unit. The police agency supplied this information.
Gangsters from Belgium and the Netherlands-Morocco have been violently competing with one another in both countries since 2012 to sell illegal substances. The cities of Antwerp and Amsterdam, two of the major drug harbors in Western Europe, have seen more than 20 shootings that have ended in fatalities in recent years.
As of now, the Othman El Ballouti generation in Belgium has been unable to escape the consequences of these power clashes.
El Ballouti’s younger brother Younes also referred to as “El Magico,” was abducted in 2016 while he was walking down a street in the Belgian city of Antwerp after leaving a gym.
The kidnappers allegedly demanded tens of millions of euros from Othman El Ballouti in exchange for his brother’s release. These details were made public by the Gazet van Antwerpen.
After that, they sent Younes to France, where he was imprisoned for five weeks until he managed to get out and ask the local authorities for assistance.
Law enforcement has learned from El Ballouti that the plot’s mastermind was Dutch drug boss Houssine Ait Soussan. According to rumors, Ait Soussan intended to kill El Ballouti to get revenge for cutting off his access to the cocaine smuggling route that led to Antwerp.
Four people were apprehended by Dutch police in 2017 from Paris and then handed over to Belgian authorities for extradition on kidnapping-related allegations. A while later, two more people were charged with the kidnapping of Antwerp drug lord Abdelkader Bouker, popularly known as “The Jew.”
Using C4ADS, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project was able to obtain the compromised database containing details about properties and addresses. El Ballouti, who is included in the database, has information in it.
A diverse group of real estate experts prepared it. His name is attached to eleven distinct properties in Dubai, with a combined market value of about $8.5 million.
These are four separate homes, each valued at approximately $2 million. They are situated in Reem’s Mira townhouses, which local real estate agents characterize as a “relaxed” and exotic neighborhood apart from the bustle of the city.
It features “a unique desert botanical park, camping infrastructure, sand surfing, and camel riding trails, [a] go-karting track, beach buggies, [a] ascending walls, and a skate park.”
It is known that he has sold two further homes in the Discovery Gardens apartment complex, which is targeted at young couples and singles. Right now, the estimated value of each is approximately $244,000.
In addition, Othman El Ballouti Belgium is the owner of a plot of land in the Address Residence Sky View, a posh hotel and apartment complex now under development in Dubai that was supposed to be completed this past year.
The upper levels of the two-tower complex, which has an unmatched architectural design, house a restaurant, ballroom, and infinity pool. In the present real estate market, an apartment of this cavernous structure of El Ballouti’s caliber may cost approximately $1.4 million.
Why is Belgium the primary hub for the transportation of cocaine into Europe, according to Othman El Ballouti Belgium?
Being the main port of entry for cocaine into Europe, Antwerp’s harbor has a questionable claim to fame. On the other hand, critics highlight the inefficiency of Belgium’s central government and the disarray of its law enforcement apparatus. Is it possible that Belgium will win the war against drugs?
Just a few hours before a joint Belgian-Dutch declaration that 2022 will once again set a record for cocaine seizures in the port of Antwerp, the suspected drug lord’s niece was discovered dead in Antwerp. Both nations issued the declaration.
The local police and the local media stated that that evening, unknown perpetrators opened fire into a parking lot in the tranquil suburb of Nieuwdreef, killing an 11-year-old girl who was there.
She was the niece of Othman el Ballouti Belgium, a 36-year-old Dubai native who Belgium claims is responsible for smuggling massive amounts of cocaine via the Antwerp port. It is thought that Othman el Ballouti came from the United Arab Emirates. The United Arab Emirates has not yet approved any petitions for extradition.
Since August, Antwerp has seen over 50 assaults, attacks, and other assaults; the little girl’s death being the most recent. This occurred as a result of measures by the cartels that oversee practically all of these unusual cocaine operations to intimidate and use violence against one another in a power struggle over the multibillion-euro sector.
The greatest physical port in Europe, Antwerp, saw the discovery of an unprecedented amount of cocaine in 2022. There were 110 metric tons in all.
Kristian Vanderwaeren, Belgium’s head of customs, and his colleagues from the Netherlands made the announcement. Vanderwaeren had said last month that Antwerp would have a “White Christmas” if there was a 10-metric-ton explosion at the end of the year.
After his niece passed away, Othman El Ballouti, who was in Dubai at the time, promised his family would not retaliate violently and denied any role in drug trafficking in a statement he released after the occurrence. Following the death of Othman El Ballouti’s niece, a statement was made.
In a cryptic reply, Othman El Ballouti Belgium stated that they would respond, but not in the way that the mayor of Antwerp believed they ought to.
In 2020, authorities in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France broke into encrypted Sky ECC phones and took out information that resulted in the arrest of Nordin al Hajjoui and Othman El Ballouti, both of whom were accused of smuggling tons of cocaine through Antwerp. Othman El Ballouti of Belgium and Nordin al Hajjoui were both holed up in Dubai.
Belgian officials believe that the increase in data for 2022 shows that the northern ports remain the main points of entry for Europe, even though hundreds of cases were established from the Sky ECC evidence, which contributed to the record-breaking cocaine seizures in 2021.
The source said that “probably half of the cocaine in Europe right now is coming through Antwerp, Belgium Rotterdam, or other nearby ports controlled by the same cartels.”
An increased level of friction exists in Antwerp’s drug ecosystem due to the substantial amounts of money and power at stake.
A cartel with origins in Antwerp has had at least twelve explosions occur on its property. In Antwerp, there have been many gunshots and explosions, most of which were more designed to scare the public than to result in casualties.
The terrible and regrettable exception happened when a gunshot murdered Othman El Ballouti’s niece.
Treasury sanctions are aimed at drug trafficker Othman El Ballouti
Drug trafficking in Belgium needs to end
Three Belgian persons are the targets of sanctions imposed by OFAC. These people include Othman El Ballouti Belgium, a high-level drug trafficker, his younger brother Younes El Ballouti, and Youssef Ben Azza, who works with him.
Ballouti, Othman El Belgium is the leader of a global criminal network that uses the port of Antwerp, which is situated inside its borders, to smuggle large amounts of cocaine throughout Europe.
With ties to drug traffickers in South America and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Othman El Ballouti’s money laundering and drug supply chain networks include Ecuadorian national Wilder Emilio Sanchez Farfan, whom OFAC targeted in February 2022. This February, Sanchez Farfan was taken into custody in Colombia.
The person in charge of overseeing his brother’s drug trafficking business is Younes El Ballouti. Younes El Ballouti was sentenced to eight years in prison in absentia proceedings in Belgium in January 2023 for his involvement in multiple cocaine shipments.
More than ten years of experience in the drug trade have allowed Youssef Ben Azza to work with Othman El Ballouti to create companies that look real but are fronts for the group’s involvement in illegal activities. These companies are set up to conceal the organization’s involvement in illegal activity.
The Belgian police are looking for Othman El Ballouti Belgium, Younes El Ballouti, and Youssef Ben Azza on suspicion of being involved in the distribution of cocaine. It is thought that they are staying in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, at this time in an attempt to avoid going to court.
According to Executive Order 14059, they were designated by OFAC because they engaged in, or were forced to engage in, operations or activities that have directly contributed to, or pose a serious risk of significantly contributing to, the global proliferation of illegal drugs or how they are manufactured.
Furthermore, they endeavored to engage in operations or endeavors that have either directly aided in or posed a serious risk of substantially contributing to, the global proliferation of illegal drugs.
Conclusion
Finally, but just as briefly, I can say that Othman El Ballouti Belgium has a cousin who lives close to the site of the former pharmacy. The family of this drug lord has gained notoriety as a result of their involvement in the drug trade. Based on the facts I found, he is involved in several distinct events involving cocaine trafficking in Antwerp.
