عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Dubai Police Arrest Head of Transnational Crime Group

A police officer wears a smart helmet as he uses it to test the temperature of the workers during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Dubai. (Reuters)
A police officer wears a smart helmet as he uses it to test the temperature of the workers during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Dubai. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Dubai Police Arrest Head of Transnational Crime Group

A police officer wears a smart helmet as he uses it to test the temperature of the workers during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Dubai. (Reuters)
A police officer wears a smart helmet as he uses it to test the temperature of the workers during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Dubai. (Reuters)

The general command of Dubai Police announced it has arrested Denis Matoshi, a leader of the Kompania Bello criminal group, a transnational organized crime syndicate involved in drug trafficking and smuggling operations between South America and Europe with an estimated street value of 1.523 billion dirhams (350 million euros).

As part of an international operation dubbed Los Blancos, Dubai Police arrested the suspect who is wanted by the Italian authorities on charges of "criminal complicity and leading a drug-trafficking gang at an international level."

The operation, which involved 10 countries, resulted in arresting 20 wanted gang leaders on Wednesday, in response to the red notice issued by the International Criminal Police Organization "Interpol" to arrest suspects including the Albanian leader in Dubai.

Italian authorities valued the cooperation of the UAE and its Interior Ministry represented by Dubai Police and hailed its swift action to arrest Matoshi, one of the most dangerous leaders of this organization, which worked jointly in three drug trafficking groups between South America and Europe through seaports.

The Italian part also noted that the organization recruited many leaders to mislead the authorities and ensure the continuance of its activities. The gang had been investigated since 2015 by two drug enforcement task forces and the Flying Squad Unit in Florence.

General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, commander-in-chief of Dubai Police, said the Albanian suspect leader from Kompania Bello was arrested in Dubai after intensive monitoring of his movement by Dubai Police in the city based on a red warrant and exchanging information with the Italian authority.

Major-General Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, the assistant commander-in-chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs, said the 20 suspects were arrested in a single strike by police departments from 10 countries including Italy, Albania, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Greece, Romania, Holland, UK and the UAE.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

Japan's Space One Kairos Rocket Fails Minutes after Liftoff

The solid-fuel Kairos rocket by Tokyo-based startup Space One is launched at the company's Spaceport Kii launch pad in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture on December 18, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT
The solid-fuel Kairos rocket by Tokyo-based startup Space One is launched at the company's Spaceport Kii launch pad in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture on December 18, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT
TT
TT

Japan's Space One Kairos Rocket Fails Minutes after Liftoff

The solid-fuel Kairos rocket by Tokyo-based startup Space One is launched at the company's Spaceport Kii launch pad in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture on December 18, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT
The solid-fuel Kairos rocket by Tokyo-based startup Space One is launched at the company's Spaceport Kii launch pad in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture on December 18, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT

Japan's Space One terminated the flight of its Kairos small rocket shortly after liftoff on Wednesday, marking the end of its second attempt in nine months to become the country's first company to deliver a satellite to space.
It is the latest in a series of recent setbacks for Japanese rocket development, even as the government looks to boost the domestic space industry and is targeting 30 rocket launches annually by the early 2030s, Reuters reported.
Authorities are pushing to make Japan Asia's space transportation hub in what they hope will be an 8 trillion yen ($52 billion) space industry.
The second Kairos flight, which only lasted about 10 minutes, was terminated because "the achievement of its mission would be difficult", Space One said in an email to reporters.
Live images from the local Wakayama prefecture government showed the 18-meter (59 ft) solid-propellant rocket blasting off from Spaceport Kii in western Japan at 11:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) but losing stability in its trajectory as it ascended.
Five small satellites, including one from the Taiwan Space Agency, were on board the rocket headed into sun-synchronous orbit roughly 500 km (311 miles) above the Earth's surface.
Tokyo-based Space One was founded in 2018 by Canon Electronics, IHI's aerospace unit, construction firm Shimizu and a state-backed bank, with the goal of launching 20 small rockets a year by 2029 to capture growing satellite launch demand.
At its debut flight in March, Kairos, carrying a Japanese government satellite, exploded five seconds after launch.
Inappropriate flight settings triggered the rocket's autonomous self-destruct system even though no issues were found in its hardware, Space One later said.
A lack of domestic launch options has seen emerging Japanese space startups such as radar satellite maker iQPS and debris mitigator Astroscale tapping on SpaceX's rideshare missions or leading small rocket provider Rocket Lab .
Recent Japanese rocket projects have also faced other setbacks.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) postponed the debut flight of the new solid-fuel launcher Epsilon S after its engine combustion test failed last month for a second time.
JAXA's larger liquid-propellant rocket H3 also failed at its inaugural launch in March 2023 but has succeeded in three flights this year, winning orders from clients such as French satellite giant Eutelsat.
In 2019, Interstellar Technologies became the first Japanese firm to send a rocket into space without a satellite payload, but its orbital launcher Zero is still under development.