Extradited from Dubai in 2024, Nordin El Hajjioui contests his twelve-year prison sentence. Before the Antwerp court, he vigorously denied his involvement in a vast drug and explosives trafficking network .
The Antwerp prosecutor’s office has demanded heavy sentences against the brothers of drug trafficker of Moroccan origin Nordin El Hajjioui . They are accused of orchestrating the extraction of 210 kilos of cocaine in June 2020 following the arrest of their eldest brother.
The alleged drug baron Nordin El Hajjioui has filed a request for recusal against the president of the Antwerp Court of Appeal. This latest procedure blocks the examination of his fifteen previous requests to recuse other magistrates.
The trial of Nordin El Hajjioui , an alleged cocaine-trafficking figure in Antwerp, was suspended on Tuesday following a new procedural offensive by his defense. The Moroccan’s lawyers filed multiple recusal requests, blocking the examination of cases involving the importation of more than 25 tons of drugs.
The Antwerp Correctional Court handed down its verdict this Tuesday, January 13, 2026 in one of the most closely followed cases of Belgian drug trafficking. Nordin El Hajjioui , a central figure in the underworld nicknamed "Dikke Nordin", was sentenced to 12 years in prison for leading a criminal organization specialized in the massive importation of cocaine. In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered a fine of 12,000 euros and the confiscation of 5 million euros in criminal assets.
The highly anticipated opening of six trials related to drug trafficking in Antwerp was marked by a courtroom incident this Friday. The main defendant, Nordin E. H., alias "Dikke Nordin", left the courtroom to protest against the security measures surrounding his appearance, which he considers "humiliating".
Just like the first one, the second request for recusal filed against a judge by the lawyers of Dikke Nordin El Hajjioui, who is being prosecuted in the "Bombs and Grenades" case, met the same fate: rejection.
After months of postponements, the trial of Dikke Nordin El Hajjioui in the "Bombs and Grenades" case was supposed to be held this Wednesday. But the Moroccan-born defendant did not appear in court. The prosecution requested a sentence of twelve years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros against him.
The Antwerp court has sentenced in absentia Omar Govers alias "Patje Haemers", one of the city’s most notorious drug-related criminals, whose accomplices are Belgian-Moroccans Othman El Ballouti or Nordin El Hajjioui, to a heavy prison sentence for importing more than 26 tons of cocaine.
Nordin El Hajjioui , nicknamed "Dikke Nordin", will be tried on May 7 by the Antwerp Correctional Court in the "Bombs and Grenades" case. This file, which deals with arms and drug trafficking, also involves about fifty other defendants.
The United Arab Emirates has extradited Nordin El Hajjioui , the suspected drug baron accused of large-scale cocaine trafficking, illegal arms trade, and drug-related violence, to Belgium. A profile of a young Belgian-Moroccan who amassed a large fortune in the criminal underworld.
Extradited by the United Arab Emirates, the drug trafficker Nordin El Hajjioui (35 years old), alias Dikke Nordin, arrived on Friday in Antwerp on a military plane that landed at the Melsbroek air base.