French police have arrested a leading member of the so-called Mocro Maffia, a cocaine-dealing gang operating mostly out of Belgium and the Netherlands, the gendarmerie said on Wednesday, October 9.

The suspect, a Moroccan national aged 35, has been the target of an international arrest warrant issued by the Netherlands. His arrest was first reported by Le Parisien.

He was detained Tuesday afternoon by members of the gendarmerie elite unit GIGN as he exited a restaurant in the 18^th district of Paris. The arrest happened without incident.

The organization with the Dutch-language nickname Mocro Maffia – a reference to the group's Moroccan origins – is suspected of distributing cocaine and synthetic drugs across Europe from its bases in the Netherlands and Belgium, and of having close links to the Latin American drug trade. They are also believed to be involved in a number of murders.

Investigators consider the suspect detained Tuesday to be a key member of the Mocro Maffia. He is wanted on suspicion of drug dealing and the production of synthetic drugs. He is to be taken before a judge with a view to extraditing him to the Netherlands, a source close to the case said.

Criminal organizations in the Netherlands are believed to be among the biggest producers of ecstasy and amphetamines in the world.