‘Fantasma’ (ghost) faces extradition to Netherlands
Tabloid Correio da Manhã has broken the news of a major arrest in a long-running police operation targeting international drug trafficking.
The so-called No 2 of the Mocro mafia (the term used for Moroccan organised crime) was arrested yesterday in what was apparently a third attempt at his detention by UNCTE/ PJ (PJ judicial police’s national unit for the combat of drug trafficking).
This man is Portuguese (according to CM), foreign according to a recent release by the PJ.
Aged in his late 40s/ early 50s, the suspect is known as ‘Fantasma’ (ghost), says the paper, due to the ease with which he can pass unnoticed. “Without a mobile phone or social media presence, he lives discreetly in an apartment in Parque das Nações, in Lisbon”.
According to CM, the unnamed man is the second-in-command of a major criminal organisation that “controls by force the illegal business of drug (trafficking) in Europe’s two largest ports, Antwerp (Belgium) and Rotterdam (Holland).
“The suspect will now be presented to the Lisbon Court of Appeal for a decision on extradition to the Netherlands.
“CM knows that the Dutch public prosecutor’s office has an arrest warrant pending for the capture of this Portuguese, to be brought before a judge of criminal instruction in Holland to decide coercive measures.
“The arrested man however can try and fight his extradition”, says the paper.
Hours later, PJ police issued their own statement saying that they have actually arrested two people over the last few days in an operation to combat international drug trafficking by sea and ‘aimed at dismantling a structured criminal network operating in the Netherlands and Portugal”.
Operation Labyrinth was carried out simultaneously in Portugal and Holland – during which time the two arrests were made.
One of those arrested was described as “the subject of an arrest request from the Netherlands” (suggesting this refers to Fantasma), the other “wanted internationally by Interpol, with several outstanding arrest warrants for the offence of murder”.
Again, no names have been given at this point.
The second arrest could refer to the Mocro mafia leader Karim Bouyakhrichan who has gone missing after posting €50,000 bail to a court in Marbella, Spain.
What is clear is that the PJ raids resulted in the seizure of large amounts of cash, several high-end vehicles, luxury goods, communications systems and various computer equipment. It is unclear whether some of these items were found in Lisbon/ Parque das Nações – but the PJ’s statement does refer to it being “possible to identify one of the criminal group’s operations centres” being located in the Lisbon metropolitan area “where the suspect lived and from where he directed and coordinated operations”.
The PJ’s statement refers also to the “several violent crimes aimed at taking possession of drugs through the use of force and weapons of war.
“Given the organisation’s great economic potential, its members had strong security and self-protection measures in place, including advanced means of transmitting information, both on an individual level and used in police countermeasures”.
While the two suspects are now due to hear bail terms, if any, investigations continue.
CM meantime refers to the group’s threat in the past to kidnap Dutch princess Amalia de Orange, and to the fact that another ‘important member’ of this Mocro mafia was recently condemned to life imprisonment by a court in Amsterdam.
