Dubai Police arrest 432 international fugitives, extradite 379 to 30 countries in two years

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Over the last two years, Dubai Police have arrested 432 international fugitives wanted for various criminal acts including leading or joining a criminal syndicate, premeditated murder, money laundering and armed robbery.

The force has also extradited 379 wanted persons to the concerned authorities of 30 different countries over the same period and repatriated 65 wanted fugitives from abroad for various criminal charges such as premeditated murder, armed robbery, assault leading to death, jewellery theft, attempted theft, and other financial crimes with total financial claims of 517,981,823 dirhams.

Major General Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, Director of the General Department of Criminal Investigation, confirmed that the Wanted Persons Department had played a vital role in arresting some of the world’s most notorious crime lords with tireless teamwork and utilising sophisticated surveillance technologies.

“Over the past two years, we have exchanged 1,830 security tips with member states of Interpol through the National Office of the Ministry of Interior and carried out successful joint international operations that dismantled transnational criminal syndicates and brought down drug and crime lords,” Al Jallaf revealed.

Successful Operations Last month, Dubai Police participated with six European countries in Operation' Desert Light' targeting dozens of high-value targets and drug lords that had come together to form what was known as a 'super cartel', which controlled around one-third of the cocaine trade in Europe.

The Operation led to arresting 49 drug kingpins and members of a prolific transnational criminal network involved in large-scale drug trafficking and money laundering crimes. In 2021, Dubai Police captured Moufide ‘Mouf’ Bouchibi, a French drug lord involved in drug trafficking and smuggling operations across Europe with an estimated annual street value of 70 million euros ($82.6m).

Bouchibi became an international kingpin known as ‘The Ghost’, had been travelling under a false identity and had been on the run for ten years using forged documents when Dubai Police arrested him and extradited him to France. In the same year, the Dubai Police also arrested one of Italy's most wanted criminals, Raffaele Imperiale, an alleged kingpin of the organised crime syndicate 'Camorra', which is involved in drug and weapons trafficking crimes across international borders.

The force also arrested Imperial's right-hand man Raffaele Mauriello, who is responsible for plotting and executing murders and assassinations using unlicensed firearms. The force also brought to justice Michael Paul Moogan, one UK's most wanted criminals, for his alleged role in a large-scale international drug trafficking plot in the Kingdom.

Moogan had been on the run for eight years when the Dubai Police arrested him shortly after receiving a Red notice from Interpol. In 2020, the force arrested Denis Matoshi, a leader of the Albanian-speaking (KOMPANIA BELLO) criminal group in an international operation code-named ‘Los Blancos’. The operation, which involved the anti-drug departments of 10 countries, resulted in apprehending 30 wanted gang leaders in a synchronised series of raids.