Police again arrest cocaine mafia leader: drug lord Piet W. arrested in Aruba | Inland

Information had come in to the special team that locates fugitives that the Piet W., who presumably stayed in Suriname for years, would take the plane to Aruba. The Public Prosecution Service immediately submitted a request for legal assistance for his arrest. On Wednesday morning at Queen Beatrix International Airport on the Caribbean island, W. ran into a lamp at passport control, where the police were already waiting for him. W. is currently still detained in Aruba. He is expected to be transferred to the Netherlands shortly to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Piet W., born in Alphen aan den Rijn, was wanted by the investigative services because he still has an outstanding prison sentence of almost three years (1082 days). In March 2014, after a mega-trial lasting thirteen days, he was sentenced by the Rotterdam court to seven years in prison for drug transport and participation in a criminal organization. He fled to Paramaribo on leave, so he did not serve the rest of his sentence.

‘The undisputed leader’

At the time, he was seen by the Public Prosecution Service as ‘the undisputed leader’ of a drug organization that was involved in cocaine trafficking for years. “This organization was regarded as a multinational that operated worldwide,” according to the National Unit.

His charm and his ability to reach the highest circles even brought the top criminal into contact with our royal family during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. After the World Cup final between the Netherlands and Spain, he even took a picture with his entourage with the then Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima. He showed that snapshot too inappropriately to his criminal friends at home and abroad.

code name

In 2012, he was arrested after another top football player was arrested when he and a friend left his luxury sky box in the Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona after the game against AC Milan. After his arrest, W. was immediately extradited to our country. The criminal investigation under the code name Tidore was then carried out against Piet W. by the National Criminal Investigation Service. This after more than 1,100 kilos of cocaine was intercepted in the port of Rotterdam in 2010 that was hidden in a shipment of whiskey. Subsequently, a series of cocaine transports were mapped from South America to, among others, Hong Kong, the Cape Verde islands and the Netherlands.

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