Younes EL BALLOUTI ¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ (a.k.a. "El Magico") POB: Antwerp, Belgium Current Location: Dubai, UAE Othman El Ballouti, a notorious figure in Antwerps drug trade, has been arrested in Dubai, Het Laatste Nieuws reports. His capture is seen as a breakthrough in targeting drug lords operating from abroad., , El Ballouti, nicknamed El Patron, was sentenced in absentia to seven years for trafficking 840kg of cocaine and is also linked to an 11-ton shipment seized in 2021. His arrest follows intelligence from the Sky ECC communications breach, which exposed global drug networks and implicated dozens of Antwerp-based traffickers., , Beyond his drug empire, El Ballouti is the uncle of Firdaous, an 11-year-old girl who was killed in a gang-related shooting in Antwerp last year. His two brothers are also on trial for drug offences, with prosecutors seeking 20-year sentences against the group.
Moroccan authorities have arrested Younes “El Magico” El Ballouti, the younger brother of notorious drug lord Othman El Ballouti, in a move that intensifies pressure on the powerful Mocro Maffia criminal network.
Younes was detained in a hookah lounge in Tangier, where police say he was carrying a forged passport. Belgian media report that he had already been convicted several times in Belgium for drug trafficking and still had years left to serve on his sentence.
Unlike his brother Othman, extradited from Dubai earlier this year, Younes had sought refuge in Morocco before international proceedings targeted him.
The El Ballouti family, originally from Al Hoceima in northern Morocco, has long been described as one of the most influential groups in Antwerp’s underworld.
Their fortune, estimated at over €100 million, has been largely tied to cocaine trafficking and laundered through luxury real estate in Dubai.
Violence has shadowed their rise. In 2023, Othman’s 11-year-old niece was killed in Antwerp during a gangland reprisal. Younes himself was kidnapped and tortured in 2017 by rivals before managing to escape.
Othman El Ballouti, known as “the Boss” or “the king of coke,” was arrested in Dubai in late 2024 and extradited to Belgium in July 2025 under a bilateral agreement signed in 2021. His fall marked a turning point in Europe’s battle against organised crime.
From dockworker in Antwerp to one of Europe’s biggest traffickers, he built a supply chain by accepting cocaine as payment, securing direct links to South American cartels.
The El Ballouti brothers’ downfall sheds light on the sprawling reach of the Mocro Maffia, a Moroccan-origin organisation that emerged in the Netherlands in the 1990s.
Initially dealing in cannabis, it grew into a cocaine powerhouse controlling large flows through Antwerp and Rotterdam.
In 2022 alone, more than 110 tonnes were seized at Antwerp’s port.
The group’s notoriety stems from both its brutality and financial clout. Its chilling motto, “Wie praat, die gaat” (“He who speaks, dies”), was underscored by the 2021 murder of Dutch journalist Peter de Vries.
Billions are laundered through real estate in Dubai and Antwerp’s diamond sector, with flows stretching from Europe to Latin America.
The arrest of Younes El Ballouti is seen by security analysts as another strike against the Mocro Maffia’s leadership. But the scale of its networks, linked to cartels such as Mexico’s Sinaloa group, underscores the enduring challenge facing European and international authorities in dismantling one of the world’s most violent and sophisticated drug syndicates.
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