DR ‹ › Abdelilah El Messaoudi, a Moroccan national and one of Belgium's most wanted cocaine traffickers, has reportedly fled Turkey, where he was facing imminent extradition to Belgium, and taken refuge in Morocco. Citing informed sources, Belgian newspaper De Morgen reported on Tuesday that El Messaoudi managed to leave Turkey in recent weeks and is now in Morocco. The Antwerp-based suspect, known as «Black» or «Narcos», had been in Turkish custody since 2023 following extradition requests from Belgium. Turkish courts had already approved his extradition twice. In Belgium, he faces more than 34 years in prison linked to large-scale cocaine trafficking operations uncovered through the cracking of encrypted networks EncroChat and Sky ECC. Aged 41, he has built a long criminal record over more than a decade. Belgian investigators link him to the trafficking of dozens of tonnes of cocaine via the port of Antwerp.
