Leading Human Trafficker arrested in Sudan
06 January, 2023
January 6, 2023(Sudanow)- The UAE announced, last Thursday that it led a major international police operation (INTERPOL) in Sudan that led to the arrest of the head of a major human trafficking network. An Eritrean citizen named “Kidan Zakarias Habt Maryam, known as “Kidan” was arrested on the first of January in Sudan, and he is wanted on charges including human trafficking of migrants, , and others.
Kidane was arrested in Ethiopia in 2020, but fled after one year, after which he was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment. According to INTERPOL, Kidane is wanted for his leadership of a criminal organization that, over several years, kidnapped, abused and extorted migrants from East Africa to smuggle them to Europe. It is estimated that Kidane trafficked "hundreds of victims".
With the help of Interpol, the UAE authorities launched an investigation last year targeting Kidan's network, including his brother, who "laundered money on his behalf," noting that these financial transactions "enabled the officers to locate Kidan in Sudan." Sudanese police arrested Kidan in Sudan on January 1, in coordination with the UAE authorities, according to Brigadier General Saeed Abdullah Al-Suwaidi, Director General of the UAE's Federal Drug Control Department. "Thanks to the professionalism and dedication of our police officers, one of the world's most wanted human traffickers will no longer be able to commit his despicable acts," the statement quoted Al Suwaidi as saying. "We have now closed one of the most important smuggling routes to Europe, which illegally transported thousands of migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan via Libya to Europe," he added.
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