Dikke Nordin El Hajjioui is a drug trafficker infamous in Antwerp as a drug kingpin. He has received multiple nicknames over the years including Fat Nordin and Dikke Nordin.
According to the Belgian government, the criminal is currently located in Dubai.
The Belgian government has tried to get him extradited but the UAE court has denied the extradition requests multiple times. However, the Antwerp agencies and prosecutor’s office are hopeful that they will succeed in getting him extradited eventually.
It is surprising to see that Dikke Nordin El Hajjioui has not been extradited to Belgium when even the Interpol has issued a red notice against him.
A Red notice is a request for all international police authorities to find and arrest a specific criminal.
You could say that it’s an international search warrant.
Once a red notice is issued against a criminal, it means that police authorities of almost all the countries on the globe would stay on the lookout for them.
The Antwerp authorities have told the media that Dikke Nordin El Hajjioui has been at their crosshair for years. They consider him to be one of the main drug kingpins behind the notorious drug import and export trade plaguing the city.
Dikke Nordin’s Connection to Antwerp Ports
In 2022, the Antwerp police succeeded in breaching the Dikke Nordin El Hajjioui’s large network. They arrested multiple dock workers, suspected to be a part of Dikke Nordin’s crew.
While the police released three of them on conditions, they placed three of t hem in custody. One of the arrested dock workers included a local martial arts legend.
After the arrest, the authorities revealed that Dikke Nordin El Hajjioui had entered the docks when his team from De Tank had disappeared. Drug kingpins like him use dock workers to help them mark and transport containers containing their illegal drugs.
When the authorities made the arrest, they found out that they had only seized a small portion of the 11 tons of cocaine Dikke Nordin had transported through their ports.
Belgium is Stepping Up to Fight Against Organised Crime (which includes Dikke Nordin El Hajjioui)
The Belgian government has stepped up its fight against organised crime and the drug smuggling financing their trades.
They are hiring more customs agents at Antwerp ports.
Antwerp is Europe’s second largest port with millions of shipping containers passing through its gates every year. That is why it is often termed as the gateway to Europe along with the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Florence Angelici, Belgian Federal Public Finance Service’s spokesperson told the media:
“For the last five years, we have been breaking (drugs) records here in Antwerp. Last year, there were 89 tonnes of cocaine seized here in Antwerp. It was a very big year, but still, we see the numbers rising.”
Moreover, they added:
We are currently hiring 100 new customs agents and we are about to build new scanning devices directly inside the terminals and the aim is to scan 100% of the risk containers.
Dikke Nordin El Hajjioui is among the biggest targets for the Antwerp authorities in this drug war.
Hopefully, the UAE courts will take notice of the drug trade and accept Belgium’s extradition request.
Professor Letizia Paoli is an expert in organised crime and she says that the war on drugs is already lost:
“The war against [drug] trafficking cannot be won. And I think that police forces all over Europe should focus not so much on reducing the flows because in areas such as the European Union with open borders, it’s really hard to stick to the use of laws.”
