One of the 6 supposed high-profile traffickers arrested in an international crackdown upon a so-called “super cartel” based out of Dubai has been named as British citizen Ryan James Hale, an associate of the Kinahan drug cartel.
Hale, 32, is one of a group of six alleged top level drug traffickers arrested in the Gulf city state as part of Operation Desert Light, a joint mission by international police, including Europol and the US Drug Enforcement Administration, to tackle Europe’s cocaine trade which resulted in a total of 49 arrests across six countries.
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Spain’s Civil Guard told newspaper El Pais they started monitoring Hale while he was living in Marbella on Spain;’s south coast. They accessed encrypted phone messages between people they say were prolific importers of cocaine from Central America to ports in Spain. The messages included secret chats involving a person named “Robo” who was trying to find out whether a 700 kilo cocaine shipment that went missing in Valencia in 2020 had been seized by police or stolen by a rival gang.
The Civil Guard later identified “Robo” as Hale, who they allege is the overall leader of the super cartel. They said Hale has strong links to the Kinahan organised crime group, an Irish gang with a major stake in Europe’s cocaine trade whose top echelon are wanted by the DEA. Police said according to intercepted messages Hale laundered drug money by buying property and high end sports cars including a €300,000 Lamborghini [£257,000] in Marbella before fleeing to Dubai because he feared being kidnapped by rivals.
The other five “high level” super cartel targets arrested in Dubai were Panamanian Anthony Alfredo Martínez Meza, alleged to have sourced the cocaine and to be behind the name “Hassan” in the encrypted phone messages; Dutch-Bosnian trafficker Edin “Tito” Gacanin, one of the biggest traffickers in Europe, and three Dutch Moroccans with key positions in the super cartel, Zouhair Belkhair, Hoesny Ajaray and Rabhioui Bourfa.
Last month VICE Word News revealed how Dubai is becoming an increasingly risky place of refuge for criminals due to a series of clampdowns by UAE authorities.
Despite the success of Operation Desert Light in targeting who they believe to be Europe’s principal cocaine traffickers hiding out in Dubai, there was embarrassment too.
A video released by Europol showcasing the operation included footage of luxury cars at Magna Supercars in Marbella, implying the business and the cars were part of the criminal conspiracy. But Europol had to make a new version of the video with the name of the business blurred out at the request of the Civil Guard who provided the footage.
Enrique Ramallo, co-owner of Magna Supercars, told VICE World News: “We were really surprised when we discovered our image in all the news. The Civil Guard asked permission to record the vídeo for their families. We told them no problem but please no internet because of our clients’ privacy. They sent it to Europol and they used [it] in the vídeo. We are a very serious company who has been working hard for our clients for more than five years and this situation makes us ‘look’ like a criminal company.” Ramallo said the Civil Guard has apologised for the mistake.
