Dubai extradites alleged cocaine kingpin to stand trial in UK

An alleged cocaine kingpin has been extradited from Dubai to the UK to stand trial in an international drug trafficking plot.

Michael Paul Moogan, who was arrested in Dubai last April, had been wanted by Britain's National Crime Agency for eight years.

The 36-year-old appeared at the Manchester Magistrates Court on Tuesday, a day after being flown back to the UK.

NCA deputy director of investigations Miles Bonfield thanked UAE authorities for helping them nab the fugitive.

"We are extremely grateful to partners for their assistance in ensuring the suspect was traced and returned to the UK. I particularly want to thank the Dubai Police and detectives from the General Department of Criminal Investigation in Dubai who used all the techniques at their disposal to assist us," Bonfield said.

NCA said Moogan has been using false identities since October 2013, when he escaped a police raid on a café in the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Police said they suspected the café was the hub for an international gang to bring hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the UK every week.

Originally from Croxteth, Liverpool, Moogan was nabbed in Dubai in April 2021 as a result of a joint collaboration between Dubai Police and the NCA.

At the time of his arrest, Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, said the arrest was another achievement of co-operation between Dubai Police and international law enforcement agencies.

British hedge fund trader Sanjay Shah, wanted in Denmark over a $1.7 billion tax fraud and South Africa's Atul and Rajesh Gupta, accused of plundering the South African government's resources, are among many high-profile arrests made by the Dubai Police this year.