The Antwerp Correctional Court has sentenced Omar G., also known as 'Patje Haemers', in absentia to the maximum penalty of twenty years in prison and a €400,000 fine for trafficking 42 consignments of cocaine through the port of Antwerp.
Illicit assets worth €400 million were confiscated, and the court ordered his immediate arrest, given he is a fugitive in Dubai.
The crimes were revealed through intercepted communications from the cracked encrypted messaging service Sky ECC. Between November 2019 and February 2021, 42 consignments of cocaine, totalling at least 26 tonnes with a street value of €1.3 billion, were smuggled in without being seized by customs.
Omar G.'s organisation used the 'switch method' to transfer cocaine from a South American container to a European one to reduce the risk of detection.
Another strategy employed was 'pincode fraud', where containers were illicitly collected. The containers were transported to warehouses in Verrebroek, where the cocaine was extracted and distributed further. The operation relied on corrupt dockworkers, lorry drivers, transporters, and extractors.
The thirty-year-old previously lived in Antwerp's Merksem district, where he managed a network of street dealers. He quickly climbed the criminal hierarchy and, like many other drug lords, relocated to Dubai.
Omar G. has been on the wanted list for years and has been repeatedly convicted in drug cases, most recently two years ago when he was sentenced to thirteen years in prison for smuggling six tonnes of cocaine.
This September, he will also stand trial in the extensive Hippix case involving the import of several tonnes of cocaine through the port of Antwerp.
On Friday, the court sentenced Omar G. to the maximum twenty-year prison term, as requested by the public prosecutor. The prosecutor also demanded the confiscation of €677 million, but the court reduced this to €400 million. Due to the risk of flight and recidivism, his immediate arrest was ordered.
This article was updated.
