Despite the sign over the door and the tables on the pavement, there was no welcome smile or frothy cappuccino for passers-by at Cafe de Ketel in Rotterdam.
Despite its innocent appearance, the cafe's doors opened on to an operations centre for global drug deals - if you were able to get through them.
Customers were by invitation only and they had to negotiate the security cameras and the buzzer system before they were allowed inside.
Police believe that traffickers from South America, the UK, Netherlands and Spain met there to discuss their plans until it was raided by police in 2013.
One of them, British police claim, was Michael Moogan, arrested in Dubai last month after eight years on the run. Moogan and another Briton, Robert Gerrard, were suspected of using the cafe to orchestrate major drug importations into Britain.
Gerrard travelled to Rotterdam to meet smugglers to arrange moving £60 million worth of cocaine into the UK.
After months of surveillance, police launched coordinated raids with UK officers targeting properties used by the two Britons. But for years there was no sign of them.
Three years after Gerrard disappeared, he handed himself in blaming the overwhelming pressure of life on the run. He was jailed for 14 years in 2017.
Another Briton, Robert Hamilton, acted as a middle-man between Dutch and British criminals. He was secretly filmed by police over several months laying the groundwork for multi-million-pound deals.
They even discussed branding the shipment by stamping an image of a champagne glass or an Audi car on each package.
Hamilton was the only Briton arrested during the raids in 2013. His trial in 2014 heard that he had a collection of luxury watches at his home along with a signed photo of former Manchester United player Eric Cantona. Hamilton, now 71, was jailed for eight years.
Moogan, 35, who featured on lists of “Britain’s most wanted” remained on the run until he was tracked down and arrested in Dubai on April 21.
Detectives believe that he used numerous false identities to avoid capture and tried to avoid security cameras in an attempt to avoid capture.
Two criminals involved in another drugs-smuggling operation were jailed in 2015 after being filmed going into the café.
The cafe was perfectly placed in the city, home of one of the world's largest ports and trading hubs.
The cafe was said to have operated for years and run by two Turkish brothers who took commissions for making introductions between major players in the drugs world.
Secret recordings showed that Anthony Dennis and Anthony Wilson, were shipping cocaine from South America. Corrupt port officials allegedly recruited by the Turkish brothers were paid to remove the drugs.
But their plans went awry when 67.5kg of cocaine was not removed from a container at Antwerp in May 2013 and was later seized by the German authorities in Essen.
The Turkish brothers, named in Dutch media as Ugur and Ufuk C, were arrested five months later in the co-ordinated raids.
Footage posted online by Dutch police showed them using chainsaws to break into one house. The inquiry into their activities followed a tip-off about the pair who were said to be smuggling heroin from Turkey to the Netherlands.
Officers discovered a cache of weapons at the cafe along with hundreds of thousands of euros, a cash-counting machine and dozens of mobile phones. A radio scanner and jammer and high value watches were also found.
The brothers were each jailed for up to eight years, according to the Dutch blog crimesite. Other members of the gang were jailed for up to six years after Dutch police discovered handguns, semi-automatic rifles and a cocaine press in other parts of Rotterdam.
Michael Moogan is being flown back to the UK to face trial.
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
- Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
