Thread by @nimkef

Peruvian Cocaine, European dealers and a Dubai HQ

Two men have been arrested and identified in connection with a shooting in Amsterdam that left a famous Dutch crime journalist fighting for his life.

yahoo.com/news/two-suspe…

Peter R. de Vries was shot in the head Tuesday in broad daylight near one of Amsterdam’s busiest plazas just minutes after he left a TV studio. He remains in critical condition, according to Dutch law enforcement.

De Vries had been acting as a confidant and counsel to Nabil B, star witness against alleged drug kingpin, Ridouan Taghi. The trial has already seen its fair share of bloodshed: Nabil’s brother and lawyer were assassinated in 2018 and 2019.

18 Oct 2019
Police believe that fugitive Ridouan Taghi is part of a "super cartel" that controls around a third of the cocaine trade in Europe

Members of this "super cartel" include leaders from the Italian, Irish and Bosnian mafias

nltimes.nl/2019/10/18/tag…

An investigation into family members of Edin Gačanin from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and were leaked through Bosnian media. The American DEA considers Gačanin one of the largest drug traffickers in the world.

Operating from Dubai, police estimate they smuggle 33,000 kg of cocaine per year via the port of Rotterdam.

Dutch Public Prosecutor received information about this super cartel from the DEA in August last year.

A large money laundering investigation into Edin's cousin Mirza Gačanin and his wife seized millions of euros worth of bank accounts and buildings in Breda.

The DEA showed that over 14 tons of cocaine linked to Edin were intercepted in 2017.

5,300kg (worth ~200M Eur) from Colombia seized in the port of Antwerp on 13 Oct 2017

928 kg hidden between teak from Ecuador

2,045 kg in a load of canned asparagus on its way to the Netherlands

5,883 kg hidden among bananas on their way to Spain.

Public Prosecutor recently announced that Taghi is likely staying in Dubai. He is wanted in the Netherlands for at least nine separate underworld assassinations. Edin G. and the leaders of the Italian and Irish mafias are also believed to be in Dubai, according to the newspaper.

19 Dec 19

Taghi, leader of ‘Angel of Death’ cartel operating in Europe and Africa, has been evading police by changing identities.

Taghi was arrested in a residential villa in Dubai.

gulfbusiness.com/wanted-dutch-c…

Dubai police said he entered the country using a passport and visa that were not his own.

He stayed in one of Dubai’s residential areas “without engaging in any criminal activity” and managed his daily affairs with the help of friends of various nationalities, officials said.

27 May 2020

Police in Breda, NL arrested Mirza Gačanin and his wife Rose van den Dungen as part of a wider investigation into what is believed to be one of the leading drug trafficking and money laundering gangs in Europe, the Tito and Dino clan.

occrp.org/en/daily/12419…

Dutch investigators asked last year authorities in Spain, Slovenia and Bosnia for help after they found that the couple had no legal income but owned companies and numerous properties in The Netherlands and abroad, including buildings, expensive cars and luxury goods.

Mirza Gačanin was a member of the Tito and Dino clan, led by the suspect’s nephew Edin Gačanin. The clan is believed to be involved in massive cocaine shipments from South America to Europe worth billions of euros/dollars.

Mirza and his wife Rose van den Dungen bought properties worth 2.31M EUR, for which they seemingly borrowed 2.67M EUR from different people and companies.

Money transfers were made through several companies registered in The Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia and Bosnia.

After a Dutch request, Bosnia raided in July 2019 four properties owned by Mirza, as well as several private companies and homes of several people.

Sarajevo’s investigative magazine Žurnal last year published a story that showed how Tito and Dino have been recruiting members from Bosnia and the region, many of them actually being the Sarajevo neighbors of the Gačanin family.

One, Smail Šikalo, arrested early 2019 in Peru, with 1,500 kg of cocaine.

In 2017, another Gačanin neighbor, was arrested in Peru, attempting to smuggle two tons of cocaine to Belgium.

It is believed that four families in the Peruvian town of Tujillo have been producing cocaine for Tito and Dino exclusively.

The group’s boss, Edin Gačanin, who Žurnal says lives in Dubai, has been in focus of the DEA, that listed him among the world’s top drug dealers.

After it was published, Mirza posted in Oct 2019 a video showing himself working on one of his buildings in Breda and threatened the author of the articles, Avdo Avdić, saying “he will be searched for in canals,” then making an obscene reference to the journalist’s children.

The Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) strongly condemned the threats at the time, while no local institution reacted.

Avdić told OCCRP that it was good that Mirza Gačanin and other key members of the cartel live abroad, having in mind how unfunctional Bosnia’s judiciary is.

12 June 2021

An Italian Mafioso, who attended cartel boss Daniel Kinahan’s wedding in Dubai, this week had his name added to a list of Italy’s six most wanted fugitives.

sundayworld.com/crime/irish-cr…

Raffaele Imperiale, 46, a boss of the Naples-based Camorra, wanted in Italy since 2016, sentenced to 8 years for drug trafficking and is believed to be hiding out in Dubai.

Imperiale, was in a video with Kinahan found on the phone of Dutch drug lord Richard ‘El Rico’ Riquelme, had his name added to the list following the arrest of fellow Mafioso Rocco Morabito.

Italy considers him to be one of the country’s most significant drug traffickers.

DEA docs sent to Dutch police identified Imperiale, Ridouan Taghi, Edin Gačanin and Daniel Kinahan as the heads of a so-called ‘super drug cartel.’

The group was observed by the DEA having meetings in the plush Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.

Imperiale, Taghi and Edin Gačanin also attended Kinahan’s wedding at the hotel in 2017.

The DEA documents described the ‘super drugs cartel’ as one of the world’s fifty largest drug cartels, with a virtual monopoly of the Peruvian cocaine trade.

Born in Italy, Imperiale inherited the Rockland coffee shop in Amsterdam after his older brother died 1996.

Imperiale is alleged to have embarked on his criminal career by selling ‘soft’ drugs before expanding into cocaine trafficking with Dutch drug trader Rick van de Bunt.

Imperiale was introduced by Antonio Orefice, of the Moccia clan, to Elio Amato, brother of Raffaele Amato, of the Di Lauro clan.

Imperiale later become the Di Lauro’s point of contact for cartels in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

In 2016, two Van Gogh paintings, stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2002, were recovered in a villa in Castellammare di Stabia, owned by Imperiale .

According to authorities, Imperiale now lives in Dubai and spends €400,000 maintaining his lavish lifestyle.

March 2021 the links between the Kinahan cartel and Imperiale emerged at the trial of Richard ‘El Rico’ Riquelme in Amsterdam.

Kinahan, 43, was a “regular contact” of Riquelme’s and was in a video seized from him following his arrest and extradition to Holland from Chile in 2017

In June Riquelme was sentenced to 11 years in prison after being found guilty of operating an assassination ring and laundering drug money.

His trial heard he had exchanged phone messages organising gangland murders with jailed drug boss Taghi.

9 July 2020

Detectives are investigating reports that under-pressure cartel boss Daniel Kinahan has fled Dubai and is travelling from country to country in the Middle East.

herald.ie/news/gardai-pr…

Kinahan, has been trying to reinvent himself as an international boxing promoter.

"It seems that Daniel is acutely aware that criminal charges are likely to be brought against him, and may be the reason why he has fled Dubai, which had been his safe haven now for over four years

"Maybe he feels that the authorities in the United Arab Emirates are finally going to come down on him."

Last month, then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed he had contacted the UAE regarding Kinahan's activities.

The Kinahan cartel is braced for a wave of arrests following the arrest last week of its main encrypted phone supplier in a raid by the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Hacking of EncroChat by authorities has already led to a series of arrests across Europe of top-tier criminals.

The arrest of the supplier in Ireland during a probe into money-laundering by Chinese gangs has left criminals scrambling.

Kinahan's key lieutenant, Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh, and two others just pleaded guilty in court in England to serious drug and firearms offences.

The article by Avdić

1 Aug 19

Gačanin's neighbors in Buljakovo, Sarajevo Smajo Šikalo, David Cufajm, Alisa Gačanin, Ervin Gačanin, Brigita Zovkić, Emina Dubois, Atim Škobalj, Mirza Gačanin, & Adnan Smajlović, ran business for the cartel in South America

fokus.ba/vijesti/bih/bo…

The group's money laundering involved companies owned by Sarajevo's "entrepreneurs" Alem Hodovic, Adnan Harbinje, Gordan Memia, Sasa Cvijetic, Dzevad and Jasmine Halilovic, Nedeljko Elek, Zvezdana Zujo...

Millions were laundered through In Media, Foto Art, Regus, Comtrade Distribution, Communis, PSM, Tehnoprom, Tranzitexport, ali i Gender Centra part of the Bosnian gov.

In the coming days, the Žurnal will publish concrete evidence of money laundering through false invoices, as well as through loans given by Sarajevo entrepreneurs to members of the "Tito and Dino" cartel.

Two companies from Slovenia are involved in the money laundering. One of them is Ponos Fasade registered in Celje to Zoran Dakic, from Mrkonjic Grad. Ponos Fasade's notary, which drew money from the Balkans to the Netherlands, is Joše Sikošek

At issue is a person who recently lost his license due to his money laundering involved in financing the campaign of Janeza Janše's party. Bosnian citizens of Prijedor origin were involved in the business, as well as Slovenian money launderer Rok Snezic.

30 June 2021

Rivera's investigation into the Orellana Clan exposed links between the cocaine traffickers and police, judges and politicians

She has forced senior judges to stand down while top Peruvian businessmen and lawyers are facing trial

sundayworld.com/crime/world-cr…

Rivera who works with 11 other prosecutors has stayed on course despite attempts to have her removed from the investigation

Her work and interrogations of suspects have revealed how Gacinin controls at least a third of the exports of cocaine to Europe from his Dubai base.

A key suspect in Peru is international rally driver Fernando De Olazabal where it was reported Rivera sought a court order to have him held in custody for three years, according to local media reports.

30 May 2019

WARNING: Link contains graphic content

The Mafia Pilot: Fernando de Olazábal involved with the Balkan Mafia

Fernando De Olazábal Schettini is involved in the Balkan mafia and a millionaire drug shipment that was going to Holland.

caretas.pe/nacional/el-pi…

Days after the Dakar 2019 in Peru, Jan 6-17, De Olazábal was to send drugs to Europe. CARETAS was able to obtain videos to Fernando Enrique De Olazábal Schettini recorded by the anti-drug police. This document dates from Saturday, January 26, 2019, just a few minutes after noon.

They were able to film the meeting between Fernando De Olazábal, James Wilson Mesías Ugarte, Manuel Navarro, Herald Oré Salazar and Gerardo García.

Olazabal's visit to Sullana was aimed at coordination of the shipment of half a ton of drugs to the Netherlands by sea.

Prosecutors believe the 3220 kg of cocaine seized 25 May 2019, belong the Serbian nicknamed 'Tito'. Audio in which Herald Roland Oré Salazar details a shipment of 500 kg of drugs sent in bananas on March 19, bound for the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

For that he had to record a video of the container pregnant with drugs and the cover of a newspaper of that date, a modus operandi that indicates that 'Tito' would be it's recipient.

Also a fragment of a conversation intercepted between phone #'s belonging to Herald Oré and José Ernesto Messarina Relayze, April 11: "'Zeus' is not served 500, he wants to put the three ... the three tonics, we have to work How much is it? "5.4M, and five sticks all...".

From this analysis it is concluded that Fernando De Olazabal Schettini would be none other than 'Zeus', who urgently needed to send three tons of drugs on the orders of his partner 'Tito'.

The head of operations in Peru would be Fernando De Olazabal, who sought out James Wilson Mesias Ugarte, known as the 'drug facilitator'. His contacts with bad officials and port dockers accuse him of being a key player in the rise of drugs inside the containers