Omar Govers, known as Patje Haemers: twelve years in Antwerp drugs and money-laundering case
An Antwerp court has sentenced Omar Govers to twelve years in his absence. Brothers Tarik and Mohcine B. and Othman El Ballouti also received prison terms in the same case. The proceedings describe drug and cash deliveries directed from Dubai. Govers’s release there remains an obstacle to enforcement of the Belgian sentences.
Antwerp’s criminal court convicted thirteen defendants on 23 October 2026 in a cocaine-trafficking and money-laundering case. Omar Govers, known as Patje Haemers, received twelve years in prison in his absence and a €96,000 fine. The court also ordered the confiscation of €11.5 million.
According to VRT NWS’s court report, Govers issued instructions from Dubai to Tarik B. and his brother Mohcine B., from Hoboken. Decrypted Sky ECC messages linked those involved to seventeen drug offences and 24 money-laundering offences in 2020 and 2021. The brothers transported cocaine and cash and collected drugs from storage locations.
The brothers did not dispute the offences and each received six years in prison and a €36,000 fine. Othman El Ballouti received three years and a €360,000 fine in this case. According to the report, his name appeared in connection with a €1 million cash handover. He had appealed the earlier sentences totalling 27 years imposed in other cases this year.
Govers was arrested in Dubai in November 2025 but subsequently released.
