The curtain fell a few days ago on one of the biggest criminal trials in the annals of the Netherlands at the high-security court, known as De Bunker (The Bunker), in Amsterdam.
Heavily armed police guarded the court and the surrounding area, while the names of the judges are a closely guarded secret and their faces were covered in televised footage of the verdict announcement. The court decision in the “Marengo Case”, as it is called in the Netherlands (the name was chosen at random by a computer program), was hailed internationally as a blow to one of the largest cartels, although the members of the criminal organization were convicted of murder, not drug trafficking .
The “big heads”
The leader of the crime syndicate, known as Mocro Mafia, Riduan Taghi, as well as two leading members of the gang were sentenced to life in prison for 10 murders. Another 14 people were sentenced to prison terms of up to 29 years. The gang, a “well-oiled killing machine” according to the court’s president, led by 46-year-old Moroccan-born Taghi, silenced those who dared to speak to the authorities about the cartel’s activity while taking out other rivals in mob busts accounts in the Netherlands as well as abroad. When he was arrested in 2019 in Dubai, Taghi was the number one wanted man in the Netherlands, with a reward of 100,000 euros. The authorities estimate that his victims are probably much more.
According to information provided to the Dutch authorities by the US drug enforcement agency DEA, Taghi was one of the “big heads” of an international drug trafficking network, together with Raffaele Imperiale of the Italian Camorra (arrested in 2021, also in Dubai), the Irishman Daniel Kinahan and Bosnian Edin Gačanin. The cartel had obtained a monopoly of cocaine from Peru and controlled a third of the cocaine traffic in Europe through Dutch ports. The US agency recorded meetings of the four drug dealers in a large Dubai hotel in 2017.
Prosecutors had been monitoring gang members’ phones and encrypted messages on the SkyECC network, but the chain of silence was broken in March 2019 when one of the suspects, Nabil B., testified against Taghi. A few days after the prosecution announced that Nabil B. was cooperating with the authorities, his brother, Raduan, was murdered, and five months later, his lawyer, Derk Wirsum.
Repeated murders
This was followed by the murder of investigative journalist Peter de Vries with a bullet to the head as he left the studio of the RTL television station in Amsterdam on July 6, 2021. The journalist was investigating the case, supporting the key witness and had been to the studio as a guest on a TV show. Members of the gang were not convicted of the murder of Peter de Vries, but were found guilty of murdering blogger Martin Kok in 2016. Kok had served a prison sentence for murder, had contacts with the underworld and possibly law enforcement, and had reported to gang action by naming its leaders.
Although the Dutch Justice succeeded in a major blow to this particular gang, its members or associates continue their activities around the world. It is characteristic that even from prison, Taghi communicated with the outside world and gave directions to his associates at least until the summer of 2022. The American DEA had informed the Dutch authorities about these communications, estimating that Taghi had bribed one or more prison officers.
The “godmother of cocaine”
At least one of his associates, 32-year-old Josh Leisdeckers, wanted for trafficking tons of cocaine and a large amount of gold, is believed to have found refuge in Turkey, enjoying the benefits of the “golden visa” he secured by investing $400,000 in the country, a small percentage of profits from his criminal activity.
Incriminating evidence against Leisdeckers, including images of the torture of a woman, had been found on Ridwan Taghi’s mobile phone. The victim is believed to be Naima Jilal, the so-called “godmother of cocaine”. Jilal disappeared in 2019 in Amsterdam, amid rumors that one of the gangs held her responsible for the “disappearance” of a large shipment of cocaine. The 56-year-old Jilal, of Moroccan origin, acted as an intermediary between Latin American and European cartels, transporting tons of cocaine in fruit containers.
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