From facebook of Nicholas Al-Jeloo
February 18 at 6:51 AM ·
Disturbing news coming out of Belgium today: 15 members of an Assyrian-Chaldean extended family have been arrested by Belgian police since they have been accused of running a drug racket smuggling cocaine into the country. Among those implicated is Mgr. Paulus “Ardhil” Sati (real name Athil Adwar Mario), of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (CSsR), Chaldean Catholic patriarchal vicar and procurator for the diocese in Egypt since December 2018. He is also the “spiritual guide” for the separatist “Chaldean League” established by Patriarch Raphael Louis I Sako in 2015. “Sati” is a well-known “Chaldean” separatist and anti-Assyrian.
According to this article, Fr. “Sati” allowed drug money and valuables belonging to drug-dealing families to be hidden in the presbytery of his own church. He also allowed these families to donate 130,000 euros to him, as well as provide him with a car. Belgian police say that he was well-informed regarding the details of this family’s criminal activities, playing the role of mediator in quarrels between the clan heads involved in this drug smuggling racket, and regularly meeting with them.
Born in Mosul (Iraq) in 1978, to a family originating from the village of Sat in the district of Jilu, Hakkari province (Turkey), “Sati” became a monk and joined the Redemptorist order in 1999, conducting his novitiate and studies in philosophy and theology in Munich and Wurzburg, Germany. He was ordained a full deacon in 2009, and served for a year in the Chaldean parishes of Augsburg and Trier. In 2010 he was ordained a priest for Bitburg, Trier, Saarbrücken and Luxembourg, and in 2012 he was transferred to the Chaldean parish of St. James the Mutilated in Antwerp, where he served for 6 years. A few months after falling out with the drug-dealing family, “Sati” was conveniently transferred to Egypt.
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From refugees to drug lords: Antwerp mafia family had tentacles in all layers of the population
Patrick Lefelon, 18 February 2019 00:00
DE KRANT: It earned fortunes through drug trafficking, but the Antwerp court has the Assyrian-Turkish mafia family Y. in the pliers. First there was the fisha fraud case with family friend and politician Melikan Kucam (N-VA – New Flemish Alliance), the arrest of 15 family members followed last week. The clan has tentacles in all layers of society, and even their pastor is part of the conspiracy. No better place to hide drug money than the presbytery of the church.
The federal judicial police initiated the hunt for the Assyrian Y. family in October 2017. It belongs to a small Christian minority from eastern Turkey. At the time of the First Gulf War (1990-1991) they fled their birth region Beytussebap and received political asylum in Belgium. The families found each other again in the Stuivenberg district in Antwerp North, where in a short time, a closed community of several hundred family members arose.
Terminal 1700
The police indicate four heads of household as ‘clan superiors.’ This concerns Dikran Y. (62), Can Y. (71), Muhsin Y. (48) and Sahin Y. (52). Together with their eldest sons, they form the hard core of the criminal organization, which earns fortunes through smuggling in cocaine. The younger sons, daughters and wives play a supporting role. They lend their signature to mortgages or contracts for money laundering, play bodyguard for a leader or help forging identity cards.
According to the investigators, Bayram Y. (38), the eldest son of clan head Can, is the leader of the Mafia family. He is actually called Yuhanis, but he prefers not to use that Christian name in the Antwerp drug scene. Bayram organizes drug smuggling via the port of Antwerp. His most important pawn is Marsin Y. (30), the son of clan-chief Dikran. He has been working as a planner at port company DP World since 2008. Marsin gives containers that are sent to Antwerp from South America a ‘safe place’ at DP World’s giant terminal.
‘Safe’ means that accomplices of the Y. family can take the bags of cocaine out of the containers without being caught. For each container, the family pays 150,000 euros to Marsin Y. Drug baron Bayram has almost a monopoly position at terminal 1700 of DP World. Other drug gangs who want to enter there must deposit 300,000 to 400,000 euros for the services of Marsin Y.
White Washing Machine
As the drug trade is running, so is the white washing machine. The four clan heads Muhsin, Can, Sahin and Dikran help to invest the huge drug revenues. In Antwerp, houses are bought, rebuilt and resold, restaurants and cafes are taken over. In Stuivenberg, where the family’s home is, they even opened a café with Y. as its name. These are not star issues, but one investment stands out. For example, the Y. family appears to own Restaurant Tafel 19 at the exclusive Cleydael golf club in Boom.
They have also purchased a laundry room and a garage, they have invested in a reception hall in Kruibeke. The car park gets an upgrade with purchases at Range Rover, Porsche and Mercedes. And as befits a real drug boss, Bayram invests in a collection of luxury watches.
Pastor Ardhil S. of the Assyrian-Chaldean Church in the Onderwijsstraat is also not forgotten by the deeply religious family. His loyal parishioners donate 130,000 euros to him in addition to a car on top of that. According to the police, the priest is up to date with the details of the family’s criminal story. He plays the role of mediator in quarrels between the clan heads. The priest also keeps money and valuables of the Y.’s in his presbytery.
Shot in the legs
Family members regularly travel back to their native region in eastern Turkey. The clan heads then agree how much cash money can be taken to deposit into their Turkish accounts. How much has been earned in the past is difficult to estimate. But during the telephone taps, the clan heads sometimes mention amounts. “When I worked with Bayram, I once earned 1.9 million euros and 700,000 euros once. Apart from the rest,” says one of them. In another conversation, a family member finds that a clan-head does not want to be involved anymore because his son had been shot. “When the money flowed in and his son earned 3, 4 or 5 million euros, the father thought that was fine.”
When the police started their investigation in 2017, the family was torn by internal quarrels. The relationship between planner Marsin Y. and big boss Bayram Y. is lost. The latter suspects that Marsin works outside of his knowledge for other drug gangs. When in August 2017 a load of 1 tonne of cocaine is intercepted, the dolls start to dance. Two days later, Marsin Y. takes his dog out in Schoten. A moped rider passes by and fires at Marsin several times. He aimed at his legs. That counts as a warning. Marsin had better be more loyal to the Y. family, so that valuable cocaine shipments are no longer lost.
A second conflict rages in the family. ‘Enfant terrible’ Corc, a brother of Bayram and son of clan-head Can, shows up from Turkey at the end of 2017. “If I do not have my money by Monday, I will do something by which everyone will be questioned by the police,” he is on the phone against one of the clan heads. With that money, he means the compensation of 800,000 euros that big boss Bayram promised him in 2016 for a faulted drug transport. Two years later Corc has not seen any money yet, except for a small advance of 50,000 euros.
Hit team hired
Christmas is a time of reconciliation. The family arranges a meeting with Pastor Ardhil S. Big boss Bayram is not there. He has fled to Turkey and will no longer show up in Belgium. But the priest does not let that dampen the mood. Clan leader Dikran, the father of planner Marsin, is threatened during a trip to his villa in Turkey. Cousin Corc has hired a Turkish team of thugs. In haste, Dikran’s sons travel to Turkey to protect their father. The clan heads themselves call Corc to calm him down.
Apart from internal quarrels, the family also suffers from other setbacks. The “narrow pipes” (code for police, ed.) fall in with a Jewish diamond merchant where Bayram hid his money. There is a break in at the church’s presbytery, where money also disappears from the family. The problems become even greater when a family member files a complaint against Bayram. A policeman, “who is his friend,” the boss explains.
The family member is interrogated and asked to identify the photographs of other bosses. Gradually, the judicial investigation senses something. Clan chief Sahin gets a phone call from his son-in-law: “The investigating judge has asked all banks to check the Y.’s account. My friend cannot really say that, because if that comes out, he will be fired. “
The Y. family also got into an argument with Ardhil S. “If he continues to be difficult, we have to put him in his place,” a clan-chief lets himself go. A few months later, the priest was transferred to a parish in Greece.
The police deployed the endgame at the end of 2018. The first blow was for local councilor Melikan Kucam (N-VA) from Mechelen, the brother-in-law of Sahin Y. Kucam finds out that one member of the Y. family sent a letter of complaint about him to Mechelen’s Mayor Bart Somers. He complains to one of the clan heads. It will no longer benefit. Kucam and his son are arrested on suspicion of fraud with humanitarian visas for Assyrian Christians.
Nobody knows anything
A month later, the trap collapses completely and fifteen members of the Y. family are arrested. Fourteen of them have been retained. Some leaders, such as Bayram, are on the run. A policeman was also arrested. They will appear this week before the council chamber. Most suspects fully maintain their innocence. Attorney Kris Luyckx, who assists Marsin Y., says: “My client says that he himself has left DP World after the threats and never passed any information to drug gangs.”
A similar note with lawyers Liliane Verjauw and Nathalie Van Sande. They represent Dikran, the threatened father of Marsin, “The man says he has never been threatened.” Clan chief Sahin does not know what this is all about. Attorney Tim Smet: “My client does good business with his reception hall, which is fully booked up to a year and a half in advance.”
And clan-chief Muhsin also wonders why he is dragged into this mafia story. Lawyer Koen Vaneecke: “Muhsin is a heart patient and lives on a sickness benefit. After his arrest, he was admitted to the hospital for two days under heavy surveillance.” Many suspects will ask the council chamber for a deferral this week to thoroughly examine the file in which the investigators invested 26,370 hours of research.
https://www.hln.be/…/van-vluchtelingen-tot-drugsbaronnen-a…/ f
