From Street Beggar to Coke Diplomat: Ex-Drug Lord’s Memoir
A former international drug and arms trafficker who once rubbed shoulders with African dictators and supplied weapons to a convicted war criminal has published a memoir detailing his extraordinary criminal career. Ali Koleilat’s book, “De Coke-Diplomaat” (The Coke Diplomat), released on April 2, 2026, offers a rare insider’s account of the global drug trade and its devastating human cost, according to Het Laatste Nieuws.
From Beirut Streets to Armed Militia
Koleilat, born around 1970 in Beirut, Lebanon, grew up in extreme poverty. At age eight, he was pulled out of school and forced to beg on the streets with a blind man. By 11, during the Lebanese Civil War, he was carrying an AK-47 for a local militia. “I was just a boy, but I walked around with a Kalashnikov as if it were a school bag,” he recalls in the book.
At 18, he followed his older brothers to the Netherlands, where they had received asylum, and entered the used car business. But a gambling addiction at Holland Casino led him into criminal circles, and he soon graduated from exporting stolen cars to Africa to smuggling cash and eventually trafficking cocaine.
Building a Criminal Empire
Koleilat claims he was the first to establish drug smuggling routes directly between South America and Africa, a pipeline that would eventually feed Europe’s insatiable demand for cocaine. He worked alongside notorious figures including Samir Bouyakhrichan, known as “Scarface,” and Dutch top criminal Mink Kok, who married Koleilat’s sister.
As RTL Nieuws reported in an interview with the author, Koleilat built a diplomatic network in West Africa, starting with Togolese President Gnassingbé Eyadéma and later forging a close relationship with Liberian President Charles Taylor. “I remember flying to Paris, where Taylor was to meet his French colleague Jacques Chirac. On the way back, Taylor suddenly said: I want to go to Libya, to meet President Gaddafi,” Koleilat told RTL.
Arms for a Dictator
When Taylor needed weapons to circumvent a United Nations arms embargo, Koleilat used his Hezbollah connections to procure seven plane-loads of Iranian weaponry. For his services, he was placed on the UN sanctions list in 2004. “Every shipment I delivered meant more violence, more war, and more lives destroyed,” Koleilat now says. “I could no longer recognize myself in the person I had become: a man without a conscience.”
His relationship with Taylor went beyond business — Koleilat impregnated Taylor’s daughter, Charline, and describes the Liberian dictator as “a friend, perhaps even a mentor.”
The Fall: 1,100 Kilos of Cocaine
In 2011, US authorities intercepted a shipment of 1,100 kilograms of cocaine destined for Antwerp’s Deurne Airport. Koleilat was arrested at Brussels Airport in 2014 and extradited to the United States. Facing life in prison, he struck a plea deal and served nine years at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, one of New York’s toughest prisons.
Released in 2023 at age 53, Koleilat now runs a fruit and vegetable export business. His book, published by Movie Bank Productions (200 pages, €24.99), is available through Bruna and other booksellers.
A Warning to Youth
Koleilat insists his memoir is a cautionary tale. “You see boys of 11, 12 years old delivering their first packages of drugs. To them I say: don’t do it. Go learn, go study,” he told RTL Nieuws. “Every big criminal eventually gets caught or shot. The money, the luxury — it’s all not worth it.”
He expresses particular regret over the arms deals. “People have a choice whether to start using drugs or not, but you can’t defend yourself against weapons.”
Significance and Context
The story highlights Antwerp’s role as a European drug hub and the intersection of drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and geopolitics. Koleilat’s ability to move between the worlds of organized crime and African state power illustrates how criminal networks exploit weak governance and conflict zones. His memoir, while self-serving in parts, provides law enforcement and the public with a rare window into the mechanics of international crime.
“Not everyone is happy with my book,” Koleilat admits. “I only talk about myself.” But for those seeking to understand how a child beggar from Beirut became one of the world’s most connected traffickers, “De Coke-Diplomaat” offers an unflinching account.