The arrest and “disappearance” of Enid Kasmi: the secret file in Venezuela blocks extradition to Belgium

A court file obtained by the outlet El Tiempo has brought to light new details about the fate of Enid Kasmi, the Albanian-Colombian citizen arrested in Venezuela in May 2025.

According to documents of the Criminal Chamber of Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice, Kasmi was wanted by the Kingdom of Belgium to serve a sentence of 12 years in prison and a fine of 560,000 euros for international drug trafficking and participation in a criminal organisation. European investigations, based on the decryption of the EncroChat coded network, link him to organising cocaine shipments from Latin America to processing laboratories in Belgium within a network with assets of more than 200 million euros. In addition to the Belgian extradition request, the Venezuelan authorities had also opened a criminal investigation against him for conspiracy, terrorism, terrorism financing and participation in a criminal structure.

Although his arrest by the DGCIM intelligence service on May 19, 2025 was officially registered, Venezuela’s Supreme Court decided on March 20, 2026 to temporarily archive the extradition file after it could not determine his current whereabouts. The lack of a response from the Caracas circuit court on the detainee’s status suspended the procedure, forcing the Supreme Court to ask the Public Prosecution to search for and locate Kasmi.