On the thirty-seventh floor of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world, Dzenis Kadric rents a high-end apartment with a breathtaking view of Dubai at a high price. The owner probably doesn’t know it, but his tenant, a former Bosnian police officer, is a member of a cartel whose leader is considered by the American authorities to be “one of the most active drug traffickers in the world”. The drug trafficker probably doesn’t know it either, but his lessor is also targeted by justice.
Candido Nsue Okomo, the former director of the national oil company of Equatorial Guinea, who subsequently became minister of sports, is indicted for embezzlement and money laundering by the Spanish justice system. This surprising situation is emblematic of today’s Dubai, where convicted criminals, fugitives, politically exposed figures and oligarchs placed under sanctions intersect.
Until the mid-1990s, however, the 35 square kilometer city was nothing but sandy dunes. It only took a few decades for it to transform into a disproportionate metropolis. An all-out transformation, driven by the stability of a rigid monarchical regime, a geographical location at the crossroads of continents and the desire to find sources of growth for oil, which will inevitably eventually run out.
The emirate then established free zones with very advantageous taxation, invested massively in ultra-modern infrastructure and fully played the tourism card. He established laws that allowed foreigners to easily own real estate. These economic and fiscal conditions attract capital from all over the world. The construction sector is following suit.
But behind the city’s gleaming facades lies a less shameful reality, revealed by a new data leak called “Dubai Unlocked”. This confidential cadastral information details how UAE real estate serves as a haven for some of the planet’s most wanted and elusive criminals, who take advantage of the authorities’ benevolence towards the dirty money pouring in from around the world – or, at least, their negligence.
Some of the names revealed by the leaks lead directly to the highest levels of drug trafficking. A leading Marseille trafficker thus offered himself, in 2021, no less than eighteen apartments in two towers in the upscale center of Dubai, paying more than 10 million euros in a few weeks. This heritage is unknown to French justice, which recently sentenced the man in question to prison for drug trafficking. The judicial investigation did not establish the existence of real estate assets in the Emirates financed by drug money, despite strong suspicions. However, French investigators had contacted their Dubai counterparts to obtain information on the financial aspect. In vain.
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