justice
Nordin El H., (36), alias ‘Fat Nordin van de Dam’, is on his way to Belgium. The wanted drug baron, against whom seven files are pending for large-scale cocaine smuggling and arms trafficking, has been put on a plane from Dubai by the Emirati authorities.
Drug lord ‘Fat Nordin’ is on a plane to our country. De Standaard heard this from a good source. The news has been confirmed by Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt (Open VLD). Nordin El H. will be transferred by a Belgian military aircraft that will land in Melsbroek this evening.
At the beginning of this month, the highest court of the Emirates gave the green light for the extradition of the Belgian drug criminal.
El H. is what is called a high value target in legal terms. There are seven cases against him in Antwerp for large-scale cocaine smuggling and arms trafficking. The best known is the ‘Bombs and grenades’ file, which not only concerns drug trafficking, but also concerns his involvement in a series of attacks with grenades. They exploded at the end of 2017 during a conflict between El H. and a rival group.
El H. has not yet been convicted once in those recent cases, not even in absentia. This is because his lawyers Hans Rieder and Louis De Groote initiate proceedings in every case. They have already revenged the judges several times.
He was sentenced to forty months in prison in 2015 in a smaller drug case. Belgium had been trying to get El H. back from Dubai for years without success.
Extradition treaty
In 2020, the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office submitted three extradition requests to the United Arab Emirates. El H. was arrested in June 2020, but was quickly released after paying a very low bail. After a legal battle with the lawyers of the Belgian state, the three extradition requests were definitively rejected by the Emirates. The Belgian government tried again in 2023, after a new extradition treaty was concluded with the Emirates. That time it worked.
The extradition of El H. is a big boost for the Belgian authorities. And for the several dozen other drug trafficking ringleaders who have taken refuge in Dubai, it is bad news that the Emirates no longer appear to be leaving them untouched.
