Belgium is asking Colombia to extradite drug baron Mounir "Mou" Namoussi (40), who was arrested during a raid in late February, together with two other suspects in the Colombian city of Barranquilla.
The raid was part of an investigation into international cocaine trafficking with Eastern European drug cartels. In Belgium, Namoussi must go to prison for seven years for a conviction in 2021.
The arrest of the man, who is a resident of the city of Genk, was announced on 1 March by the director general of the Colombian National Police on social media. Now, five days later, Belgium's Justice Ministry wants to get Namoussi to the country.
"We will indeed request the extradition because he was convicted in absentia in our country," Anna Degraen of the Limburg Public Prosecutor's Office told VRT. "Because it concerns an extradition with a country outside Europe, a whole process must take place first."
"The request must be translated correctly and precisely. We are currently working on that. When the translation is ready, we will pass it on to the Justice Ministry, and the request will be processed via diplomatic channels."
Magnetic metal boxes
The Public Prosecutor's Office cannot confirm whether the drug baron is currently also involved in ongoing investigations. The raid was part of an investigation that was an international collaboration between Belgium, Colombia and the United Kingdom.
According to the Colombian police, Namoussi is the most important link in an international criminal organisation involving both Eastern European cartels and criminal organisations from Latin America. This includes the 'Clan del Golfo' – one of the oldest criminal syndicates in Mexico.
"The suspect used magnetic metal boxes to smuggle between 270 and 300 kg of cocaine per week by attaching the boxes to cargo ships at sea," said Director General Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán of the Colombian National Police. The drugs were recovered before the ships reached the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp.
Namoussi was previously convicted in Tongeren (Limburg) in 2021 for arranging cocaine transports between Colombia and the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Mounir grew up in Genk, but later moved to Maastricht.
