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Police have dismantled a “super cartel” that controlled a third of Europe’s cocaine trade, arresting 49 people in various countries, including six chief suspects in Dubai, Europol has said.
The operation seized 30 tonnes of the drug and led to arrests in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain, the EU’s police agency said in a statement.
The crackdown, which was said to involve one “extremely big fish” from the Netherlands and based in Dubai, largely targeted cocaine coming from South America through the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp.
“The drugpins, considered as high-value targets by Europol, had come together to form what was known as a super cartel which controlled around one-third of the cocaine trade in Europe,” Europol said. “The scale of cocaine importation into Europe under the suspects’ control and command was massive and over 30 tonnes of drugs were seized by law enforcement over the course of the investigations.”
It said Dubai had arrested two “high-value” suspects linked to France, two connected to the Netherlands and two linked to Spain.
