Abdelkader Bouguettaia, nicknamed “Bibi”, is actively sought. Implicated in several investigations for importing narcotics, via the port of Le Havre, the city where he was born, “Bibi” was the subject of an Interpol red notice. That is to say a request for arrest. However, the major French drug trafficker was released by the United Arab Emirates, reports the newspaper The world.
Abdelkader Bouguettaia was arrested following the visit by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin at the end of October. He was notably sentenced to nine years in prison in Lille in May 2023 for his role in the importation of a container containing 599 kg of cocaine, which had been intercepted in Antwerp (Belgium), according to The voice of the North. Absent at his trial, an arrest warrant was issued against him.
Dubai, the refuge of French drug traffickers
He is also suspected of being the “sponsor” and “organizer” of an importation of 2.5 tonnes of cocaine, discovered by the authorities in Cartagena (Colombia). Abdelkader Bouguettaia has been based in Dubai since 2019, from where he “managed cocaine imports”. Many of the leaders of drug trafficking in France are based in Dubai.
Targeted by a national arrest warrant since December 10, 2021 and a European arrest warrant since February 7, 2022, the trafficker is still at large. Further proof that judicial collaboration is chaotic, to say the least, between France and the United Arab Emirates.