Dubai: Drug trafficker Abdelkader Bouguettaia finally extradited to France

Sources close to the case told AFP on Thursday that the man, who will be 38 at the end of June and was born in Le Havre, would be transferred to France overnight from Thursday to Friday. "A new drug criminal is being extradited to France by the United Arab Emirates. Convicted three times by the French courts between 2022 and 2023 and the subject of two arrest warrants, he will have to answer for his actions," French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said on X, without naming the person concerned but adding the French and Emirati flags.

When contacted, the Paris prosecutor's office and the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco), who are seeking his assistance in particular in a case in which he is suspected of being the "organizer" of the importation of 2.5 tons of cocaine, discovered by the authorities in Cartagena (Colombia) and which were to be delivered to Le Havre, did not wish to comment "for obvious security reasons."

According to one of the sources close to the case, Mr. Bouguettaia is also implicated in cases before the Lille Interregional Specialized Jurisdiction.

"Bibi" was first arrested in Dubai in October 2023, then released in January 2024 , before being arrested again . He has been awaiting a decision on his extradition since then.

In France, Mr. Bouguettaia was sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison in Lille in 2023 for importing a container containing 599 kilos of cocaine that was intercepted in Antwerp, Belgium. Abdelkader Bouguettaia is suspected of having long coordinated the importation of cocaine from Le Havre, his birthplace, before moving to Dubai in late 2019, where he allegedly continued to manage the trafficking.

One of his alleged collaborators, questioned during an interrogation whose report was seen by AFP, had claimed that Mr. Bouguettaia was associated with a senior official in the distribution of cocaine in the Netherlands and that he managed the "reception of the merchandise" in Le Havre, Paris, and Antwerp.

In the French port, Bibi allegedly had "lots of workers, dockers, port security people. He pays them," this colleague claimed. Ordered remotely by phone, the methods are violent, this witness continued: sending photos of his family members without any other message, sending henchmen when he responds too slowly to a message or refuses a mission.

Dubai has long been seen by France as a haven for drug traffickers, despite an extradition agreement signed by the Emirates with France in 2007, with Spain in 2009, and with Belgium and the Netherlands in 2021.

In March 2021, an alleged trafficking baron, Moufide Bouchibi, known as "Mouf," was arrested on the spot and then extradited to France two months later . But this case was fairly isolated.

"We have identified around thirty priority targets […] in Dubai. None of these traffickers have been extradited, even though some have been arrested," Jean-Noël Bonnieu, Deputy Director for the Middle East at the Quai d'Orsay, lamented to the Senate in January 2024.

Another drug trafficker, Abdel Karim Touil, known as "the professor," was also arrested in Dubai at the end of 2023 and then released, and managed to reach Lebanon, where he was arrested again. He was extradited to France in July 2024.

Last January, Gérald Darmanin traveled to the Emirates to strengthen judicial cooperation, following a first trip as Minister of the Interior in October 2023.