A suspect who was based in South Africa and accused of smuggling masses of drugs to the US nearly two decades ago managed to avoid being extradited there.

That is until earlier this month when South African authorities handed Nello Quagliani to US authorities.

Justice Ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri on Wednesday 28 September confirmed to Daily Maverick that Quagliani, who appears to have both South African and Italian citizenship, was handed over to the US on 15 September.

The Miami Herald reported that last Friday, 23 September, Quagliani appeared in a federal court in Miami and pleaded not guilty to money laundering and importing and distributing MDMA, also known as ecstasy, in the US.

Suspected head of global ecstasy smuggling ring

It was suspected Quagliani was among the leaders running an ecstasy smuggling ring with a stronghold in the Netherlands.

He was the last of about 30 other suspects to be prosecuted on charges dating back to 1996.

The Miami Herald quoted an extradition request, filed by a former federal prosecutor, David Weinstein, as saying: “Nello Quagliani provided the MDMA to the members of the organisation in Europe as well as received money from the corresponding sale of the MDMA after it had been successfully smuggled into the United States…

“Nello Quagliani also assisted in the collection of the proceeds from the sale of the MDMA.”

When approached for comment on the Quagliani case, the US’s Drug Enforcement Administration referred Daily Maverick to the Southern District of Florida’s attorney’s office.

A response from that office was not received by the time of publication.

Court papers from South Africa, dated more than a decade ago, hint at the legal processes Quagliani launched to try and avoid being sent to the US.

Battle against extradition

Some of the legal action linked to Quagliani was also driven by Stephen van Rooyen and Laura Brown — a couple then also wanted by the US and accused of fraudulently running a clinic advertising “stem cell transplants” on terminally ill patients in America — to try and stay in South Africa. 

Van Rooyen is still listed as a “most wanted” fugitive by the US’s Food and Drug Administration. Brown reportedly died in 2011.

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All three — Van Rooyen, Brown and Quagliani — were in SA and wanted by the US.

Even though Van Rooyen and Brown were charged in a totally separate case, together with Quagliani they tried via legal processes to show that their potential extraditions between South Africa and the US would not be valid.

According to 2008 Constitutional Court documents — a written submission on behalf of Quagliani — he had South African citizenship and was provisionally arrested without a warrant in November 2003 because the US wanted him extradited there.

Quagliani did not face criminal charges in South Africa, but in the US where he was accused of drug smuggling.

The month after his arrest, December 2003, he was released on bail from the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court.

It was argued on his behalf that there was no valid extradition treaty between South Africa and the US.

But in 2009 it was reported that the Constitutional Court found against him.

While Daily Maverick understands other legal action could have since spurred his extradition, it was not immediately clear why Quagliani was sent to the US only earlier this month.

Global trafficking accused and SA

Other drug dealing suspects, linked to South Africa, have previously been extradited to the US where they were wanted — but from other countries.

Daily Maverick previously reported that Cuban drug lord Nelson Pablo Yester-Garrido, who was based in South Africa, was arrested in Rome while travelling and subsequently extradited to the US around July 2019.

In August 2020 he pleaded guilty to charges relating to marijuana distribution in Miami.

Later that year he was sentenced to an effective five years in jail in the US.

Indian drug kingpin Vijaygiri “Vicky” Goswami, based in South Africa in early 1990, was extradited from Kenya to the US, in January 2017. 

He later turned state witness in the court case playing out in America in which it was alleged Goswami and associates had been intent on dominating the mandrax trade in South Africa. DM