Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam of Eritrea and his brother Henok were arrested in Sudan in a multi-national police operation which gained momentum when Interpol issued, in 2022, two Red Notices on the application of The Netherlands and Ethiopia. Kidane Habtemariam was said by Interpol to be their most wanted human trafficker. His brother will, initially, be charged with money laundering.

The evidence against the brothers and a number of their associates has been piling up for a while but they continued in business, using multiple false identities.

The arrests, on 5 January in Sudan in large part to what Interpol described as swift action by the United Arab Emirates, based on information shared via INTERPOL. Kidane had come to Interpol's attention in only 2019, after five years in operation.

Interpol said "In March 2022, intelligence gathered by INTERPOL’s Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Migrants unit prompted a task force meeting with participants from Ethiopia, Sudan, The Netherlands, UAE, Europol and Regional Operational Centre in support of the Khartoum process and the African Union Horn of Africa Initiative (ROCK). Officers explored analytical gaps, progressively closing in on the fugitive and his associates. This extensive collaboration generated a new batch of intelligence, allowing UAE authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of his network and family members, identifying money laundering activities and leading to Sudan."

Kidane's criminal organisation is alleged to have kidnapped, trafficked and extorted moneys from thousands of East Africans.

He was arrested in Addis Ababa in 2020 but escaped a year later, before trial. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in his absence. That was what led to the Red Notices.

With no delay at all, Kidane was extradited from Sudan to the UAE where he will go on trial again and then it will be decided where he will serve sentences. The Netherlands might also want to try him on charges of kidnapping, rape and extortion. Although the UAE has rape amongst its extensive list of capital offences, and it is the most common reason for execution, in recent years, capital punishment has been meted out in only the most egregious cases of raping young children.