Known as the 'European Escobar', Edin ‘Tito’ Gačanin is suspected of trafficking huge quantities of narcotics to Europe from Colombia, Peru and Ecuador
Dutch media outlet Ad.nl is reporting that Edin ‘Tito’ Gačanin, who was described as "one of the world’s most prolific drug traffickers” by the US, has been apprehended in his desert hideaway.
The Dutch State Prosecutor’s Office has filed criminal charges against Gačanin, who is suspected of smuggling 2,500 kilograms of cocaine, worth tens of millions of euros, into the ports of Rotterdam and Hamburg.
He was also suspected of smuggling chemicals for the production of methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth.
However, it was later reported he had cut a deal with Dutch prosecutors after Gačanin’s defense attorneys Laura Versluis and Leon van Kleef reportedly reached plea agreements with the State Prosecutor’s Office.
Both sides suggested a sentence of seven years in prison and a fine of one million euros.
“The court agreed with this and sentenced Gačanin in accordance with the request of the State Prosecutor’s Office,” a report in the Sarajevo Times reads.
Now, it has been confirmed by a spokesperson for the Dutch prosecution that the drug lord was arrested in February this year in Dubai at the request of the Netherlands.
"The Netherlands has also filed a request for extradition. We expect the procedure to be carried out without any problems," the spokesperson said.
Edin ‘Tito’ Gačanin
Edin ‘Tito’ Gačanin
Attorney Van Kleef did not want to comment on the arrest, but previously said that the claims about his client being one of the biggest drug lords in the world were "pure nonsense."
"That's just nonsense,” he said, according to the news site, Ad.nl. “There's only one case against him and it's an average drug trafficking case that we have in court all the time. Nothing special.”
Known as the 'European Escobar', Gacanin, a Netherlands passport holder and native of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, is suspected of trafficking huge quantities of narcotics to Europe from Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned him in 2023, calling him “the leader of the Tito and Dino Cartel” — reportedly part of a super cartel of notorious criminal organisations that included the Kinahan organized crime gang, the Dutch Mocro Mafia and Italy’s Camorra.
Other members of the “super cartel” that had been operating out of Dubai, according to judicial authorities, included Ridouan Taghi, a former ally of the Kinahan Cartel who went on trial for involvement in a number of murders and attempted murders.
He was later jailed following the Marengo trial that involved leading members of the Mocro Mafia, the Dutch-Moroccan criminal organisation.
Another key member was the Italian mafia boss turned state witness Raffaele Imperiale who was extradited from Dubai in 2022.
He is now serving 15 years in Italy after becoming a ‘pentito’ — a collaborator
The super cartel is said to be responsible for a third of the cocaine trade from South America to Europe,
Gačanin was one of the cartel members at Daniel Kinahan’s wedding in 2017 at the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai along with mob-bosses Imperiale and Taghi.
He had been arrested in November 2022 in Dubai after his extradition was requested by The Netherlands but released some months later when the bid failed.
Last year Gačanin was described as "one of the world’s most prolific drug traffickers” in an announcement by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Last May, Bosnia and Herzegovina dismissed their honorary consul in Panama over his suspected links to Gacanin.
The office of the country’s presidency acted on the suggestion of politician Željka Cvijanović to sack Fatih Kol, who is suspected of being part of the ‘Tito and Dino’ cartel.
The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina unanimously voted for the dismissal of Kol, local media reported at the time.
According to the Sarajevo Times, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina suspects Kol of being part of the organised criminal group led at the international level by Gačanin, and in the country by Adnan Smajlović.
“Kol was not in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time of this action, so he could not be arrested, but his name is included in the proposal for detention or prohibition measures against members or collaborators,” The Times reported.
The previous month we reported on how the ‘Tito and Dino’ Cartel tried to gain political influence in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the aim of “taking over the state”.
The gang were targeted in an operation led by the Bosnia and Herzegovina State Investigation and Protection Agency with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Europol.
Police arrested 23 people, including senior law enforcement officers, as part of the operation.
Prosecutors allege that members of the cartel tried to gain political influence with the aim of “taking over the state”.
They said that as part of this plan they contacted local politicians and offered financial support.
They also say members of the criminal group advised setting up citizens’ associations to achieve political influence, and messages decrypted from the Sky messaging app showed they were often interested in the political situation.