Police in Sierra Leone have stated they’re looking a Dutch drug trafficker who’s one in all Europe’s most-wanted fugitives and believed to be hiding out within the west African nation.
Jos Leijdekkers was sentenced in absentia by a Rotterdam court docket in June final yr to 24 years in jail for organizing the transport of seven tons of cocaine and ordering a homicide.
Suspicion that he was in Sierra Leone arose after the nation’s First Girl Fatima Bio posted footage and a video on social media that confirmed a person strongly resembling Leijdekkers at a spiritual service attended by President Julius Maada Bio.
Nationwide police inspector common William Fayia Sellu stated investigators had recognized the person within the pictures as Leijdekkers, alias “Omar Sheriff.”
First Girl Fatima Maada Bio through Fb/through REUTERS
“A police man-hunt has been launched to arrest him, visiting a number of places, however he has not been discovered but,” he informed a information convention.
The 33-year-old — who authorities say is often known as ‘Bolle Jos’ (“Chubby Jos”) — is on the European Union legislation enforcement company Europol’s most-wanted list.
“Leijdekkers is taken into account to be one of many key gamers in worldwide cocaine trafficking,” in line with Europol.
Leijdekkers can be believed to be concerned within the disappearance and loss of life of Naima Jillal, a lady who went lacking in 2019 after she obtained right into a automobile in Amsterdam, according to Europol. Intercepted messages allegedly confirmed that Leijdekkers “performed an necessary function in Jillal’s disappearance,” the company stated.
“For a very long time, there was no hint of Naima Jillal, till pictures of a lady believed to be her had been discovered on a cellphone seized within the Marengo investigation,” Europol stated. “The pictures present that she was most probably tortured and might be now not alive.”
Final month, the BBC reported that Dutch prosecutor Wim de Bruin stated the fugitive’s return to the Netherlands was of “the best precedence.”
Europol has supplied a 200,000-euro ($208,000) reward for info resulting in his arrest.
Because the BBC notes, West Africa is a serious transit level for the trafficking of cocaine from Latin America. Final month, Sierra Leone recalled its ambassador from neighbouring Guinea after seven suitcases containing suspected cocaine had been present in an embassy automobile.
