‘Medium A’ did not touch a single gram of cocaine or hashish, but is still convicted of aiding and abetting hashish and cocaine trafficking.
The Eastern High Court has a significantly different view of a 50-year-old man’s behavior in the organized criminal environment than the district court. This became clear on Wednesday when the high court sentenced the man to nine years in prison for drugs. This changes the sentence of five years in prison that the Copenhagen City Court reached in January 2024.
The district court originally found ‘only’ evidence of money laundering of approximately 58 million kroner. That is, that he had deliberately handled the large amount of black money. Instead, the high court ruled that he was co-responsible for dealing in hashish and cocaine, as he was a money man in a drug organization.
Abdelkhalek Benarabe, also known as ‘Mellem A’, will not hear the result himself. The other day he attended a court hearing, but on Wednesday he was not present to attend the sentencing, which he is not obliged to do. The police believe that he has left Denmark, it will be revealed in the court hearing.
Earlier in the process, he spent about two and a half years in custody. In March, he was released while waiting for the High Court to begin the appeal case against him.
Prosecutor adheres to the lessons of the case
The sentence of nine years is the High Court’s bill for ‘Mellem A’ for his involvement in the trade of approximately two tons of hashish and four kilos of cocaine. He had a central role as the one who delivered and collected money, according to the reasoning, which the presiding judge reads out. At the same time, he will have the six million kroner that he is believed to have earned from the crime confiscated.
Despite the verdict, the two prosecutors from the State Attorney for Serious Crime (SSK) have not been fully successful. The High Court will not endorse their claim that Benarabe was co-responsible for as much as 30 kilos of cocaine, and that he should therefore be sentenced to 12 years in prison.
But prosecutor Tasi Nørskov-Jensen from SSK adheres to the lessons of the case:
“You can be convicted of complicity in the drug organization’s overall crime, even if you have never handled a single gram of drugs,” she says.
In the same case complex, the 50-year-old’s brother, known as ‘Little A’, was previously sentenced to 11 years in prison.
ritzau
