He started at the bottom of the ladder, as an indispensable hand in drug trafficking which has for many years plagued the mega port of Antwerp (Belgium), the gateway for narcotics to European territory. But since then, Othman El Ballouti has climbed the ranks of Belgian organized crime to the point of becoming one of the country's cocaine trafficking barons and being nicknamed “El Patron”. Sentenced in his absence in Belgium, the 36-year-old drug trafficker has just been arrested in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and is suspected in several cases.
This child of Moroccan immigrants who arrived in Antwerp in the 1980s grew up in Borgherhout, a district of Antwerp, now considered a hotspot for drug trafficking and violence. According to Libre Belgique, hired as a dockworker at the port, the young man started as a “courier”. His mission: to get illegally chartered drugs out of the port to Antwerp. “He was obsessed with the idea of never getting caught,” a source told the Dutch weekly Humo. It was a game and he wanted to be the best. Such conveying work brought in a few thousand euros at the time. » According to this magazine, Othman El Ballouti is one of the first “couriers” to be paid in cocaine instead of bank notes. Enough to help him launch his own organization.
Millionaire, multi-owner
Over the years and meetings, the criminal grows in stature, gradually becoming, according to the media, the “coke king” of Antwerp, and developing “friendships” with several well-known criminal organizations. authorities, such as the Mocro Maffia. Recently, Othman El Ballouti is said to have sold one of his numerous Dubai properties to Alejandro Salgado known as “El Tigre”, considered “the biggest Spanish cocaine trafficker” by the authorities of his country. A sale, approved by the Emirati authorities and estimated at 1.5 million euros, revealed the Belga agency a few days ago.
According to the collective of investigative journalists OCCRP, the combined assets of the Antwerp criminal amounted to at least 100 million euros a few years ago. The value of his real estate in Dubai would exceed 8 million euros, also estimate the Belgian media.
His 11-year-old niece shot dead
El Ballouti's family is considered by the authorities as “the richest in the Antwerp underworld”, according to the mayor of Antwerp, quoted by La Libre. And this powerful clan does not escape the gang wars caused by the profitable cocaine trade. Younes “El Magico” El Ballouti, El Patron's younger brother, also wanted, will be kidnapped by a competing team in exchange for a ransom and last year, the drug trafficker's niece, aged 11, was kidnapped. shot dead in Antwerp in a reprisal shooting. At the time, the “uncle” had promised a response.
In 2016, “El Patron” was arrested at Brussels airport: the authorities suspected that his donation of 115,000 euros to a Muslim school in Antwerp came from “illegal sources”. The person concerned fled to Dubai where he managed his affairs.
Targeted in several cases
Except that in 2021, the dismantling of Sky ECC messaging by Belgian investigators provides access to the encrypted conversations of many criminals, including those of Othman El Ballouti. Targeted since 2023 by the American Treasury for drug trafficking, the drug lord was sentenced in absentia last September to seven years in prison in Belgium for the importation of 840 kg of drugs via Antwerp.
Othman El Ballouti is also involved in another drug trafficking trial in which a twenty-year sentence was requested against him this fall, according to Belgian media. The judgment is expected soon. “There are several cases for which his extradition is requested,” a judicial source told AFP. “We obtained his arrest, we will now see if we obtain his extradition. »
