Dubai: Police of Dubai arrested an international drug group that was part of the drug trafficking and smuggling operators across Europe and South America.
The global operation to arrest the drug kingpin was conducted in partnership with Dubai police and the many other police agencies of France, Spain and Colombia.
As per the police statement, 17 other suspects have been arrested from different countries, and nearly 22 tonnes of Cocaine mixed with Sugar were seized from a ship coming from Colombia to France.
As per the Lt General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-In-Chief of Dubai Police, the title of the operation was ‘Sugar Cane‘, which was a major success after the detention of the main suspect, identified as M.D. “He was a major member in one of the biggest international gangs.
Furthermore, he added that they were smuggling Cocaine between South America and Europe in ships of Sugar, apart from running labs in Europe to separate the Sugar from the Cocaine.
Dubai police are working hard to fight drug trafficking in the world and work on the binds between the UAE and other countries in fighting organised crimes, he added.
Information was exchanged between Dubai Police and police agencies in France to set a zero hour to arrest the suspects.
According to Brigadier Eid Mohammed Hareb, Director of the Anti-Narcotic Department in Dubai Police, the practice for the operation started one year ago as the gang had already established their fake shipping and commercial companies so that they could operate freely between South America and Europe during COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Brig Hareb, they were shipping food via Port of Le Havre in France, but police and customs administration of France found the food in containers mixed with Cocaine.
The sugar receptacles from Colombia to France and Spain were under supervision until the zero hours of the operation at 4 am on May 5 this year.
According to Brig Hareb, the French authorities arrested ten suspects in Paris, Cannes, Meudon and Lyon. One of them was an expert in chemicals because he separated Cocaine from Sugar.
Seven other suspects were also arrested in Madrid and Barcelona, including a chemical expert and deputy of a gang leader.
Nearly 22 tonnes of Sugar mixed with drugs were seized in the joint operation. There were between 3 to 15 per cent drugs mixed with Sugar in the 900 seized bags,” he added.
In short, the operation revealed that the gang was behind smuggling 12 tonnes of tobacco to Belgium in August 2021.
However, they made a failed attempt to smuggle 600kg of Cocaine in September 2021 in Columbia.
According to Dubai Police, the gang was laundering millions of euros.