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A Belgian media network has published an investigation on the "paradise" that crime bosses are finding in Dubai. Among the names that are mentioned is Franc Çopja, described as a drug boss. According to the media, he invested heavily in Dubai, buying villas and apartments. But according to them, he was eventually extradited to Belgium and is considered a valuable asset.
In downtown Dubai, two oval, silver-colored skyscrapers are connected by a three-story sky bridge. It has a rooftop pool that overlooks the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building designed by the same American architecture firm that designed these twin towers. Address Residence Sky View Towers more than 230 meters high together, have more than 530 apartments and 180 luxury hotel rooms.
The futuristic buildings were completed in November 2019. In February 2022, one of the apartments, with over 187 square meters on the 29th floor, changed hands for more than 1.5 million euros. The buyer was Spaniard Alejandro SV, a 46-year-old cocaine trafficker nicknamed 'El Tigre'. The seller was known to Belgian courts: 36-year-old Othman EB, who was convicted in Antwerp in September. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in absentia for importing 840 kilograms of cocaine through the port of Antwerp. He bought the apartment in Dubai himself in February 2020 for about 1.4 million euros.
Never before has it been known that drug traffickers have exchanged real estate in Dubai as well. Through the collective of investigative journalists OCCRPDe Tijd, together with Knack, Le Soir and Spanish partner InfoLibre, gained access to new data on real estate transactions and rental contracts in Dubai.
Just a few months after the transaction, in August 2022, El Tigre was arrested in Dubai. Not for drug trafficking, but for drug use. Police forces in the Emirates alerted their Spanish colleagues, after which the Guardia Civil announced in December 2022 that it had issued an international arrest warrant against Alejandro SV. They called him "the biggest known Spanish drug trafficker" and also a high-value target for Europol.
"He lived a very luxurious life in Dubai, but behaved in an exemplary manner and thus went unnoticed," the Spanish press release said. "From Dubai he managed a global cocaine trade through coded communication systems spread over five continents." El Tigre's lawyer told InfoLibre that he denies all the charges.
High value target
In the same twin silver towers in downtown Dubai, another targeted drug lord from Belgium completed a real estate deal. In August 2020, just a few months after Othman EB, the head of the Albanian clan Franc G. (Franc Çopja) bought a 158 square meter apartment on the 22nd floor for more than 760,000 euros. He sold it a year later, in August 2021, for more than 1.1 million euros.
Franc G. was extradited to our country from the United Arab Emirates almost a year ago. He became a high-value target for the Belgian justice system after 192 home raids by 1,100 police officers in our country in October 2021 to establish an Albanian network that imported cocaine, had laboratories in Brussels and was active in the international arms trade . According to the Belgian court, Franc G. is also the author of a bloody murder for hire in Molenbeek in November 2020.
In May this year, "De Tijd" reported how 53 properties in the Emirate had been bought in recent years by ten drug lords and four family members. This included 44 apartments, five villas, three plots of land and an office in Dubai, which together were worth almost 56 million euros. Newly uncovered data reveals that he and other drug lords who were also wanted, prosecuted or already convicted by Belgium were able to trade even more real estate in Dubai than previously known seen.
Previous data already showed that Franc G., especially in 2020, bought eight apartments and two villas in Dubai for almost 18 million euros and quickly sold them again with a total profit of millions of euros. The new data links it to three other apartments in Dubai.
This also applies to Maati K., in his forties, who was sentenced in the first instance to 10 years in prison for a drug case in June of last year, against which an appeal has been made. We were previously able to link him to an apartment in Dubai, which he had already resold for a substantial profit. The new data links him to six apartments in Dubai, some of which were bought or sold in 2022 and last year. Including buyers and sellers from Russia and Nigeria.
Another example is the wanted man in his thirties, Anass Z., who was sentenced to seven years in prison in Antwerp in November 2016 for importing cocaine. In the new data, his name is associated with three apartments of about 180 square meters in the Beach Vista Tower 2 building, overlooking the Palm Jumeirah - the famous artificial archipelago in the shape of a palm tree. The apartments were all sold in May 2021, two of which for around €775,000 per property.
Blue bells
Wanted drug traffickers were also able to quickly sell their properties in Dubai when things really got too hot under their feet. How 37-year-old Youssef BA Die was sentenced in absentia by the criminal court of Antwerp on Friday to 15 years in prison and a fine of 120,000 euros for importing 15.2 tons of cocaine through the port of Antwerp.
But even before this sentence, Youssef BA was placed on the sanctions list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a division of the US Treasury Department. This happened in July 2023 and new leaked data shows what happened in Dubai then. Exactly one month after OFAC's sanctions announcement, he was still able to sell a property he bought in May 2021 to a Moroccan woman in Dubai.
While they were busy dealing in real estate in Dubai, lawyers for the targeted drug lords claimed in court that their clients weren't even in the UAE. Like 29-year-old Younes EB, whom Belgium is also seeking extradition. In May, the Court of Appeal in Antwerp sentenced him to eight years in prison for importing cocaine in 2021. Afterwards, Younes EB tried to argue with the Cassation that he was not involved in that traffic because he 'did not stay in Dubai '. His lawyer withdrew last month.
However, encrypted Sky ECC phone messages that the court has already cracked showed he was in Dubai. For example, Younes sent EB messages like 'I'm coming to Dubai next week' and 'Do you know anyone here in Dubai who sells their watches (expensive watches, ed.)?' The man denied hiding behind the numbers of the users of that communication, which did not take place through Belgian cell towers, but through roaming in Dubai. However, he also appears to have bought a studio in Dubai, Dubai Unlocked real estate records show. Lawyers for all the drug suspects who appear in the leaked records did not respond to our inquiries. /Adapted "Pamphlet" from "De Tijd"
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