Police in Sierra Leone have stated they’re looking a Dutch drug trafficker who’s certainly one of 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 courtroom 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 photos and a video on social media that confirmed a person strongly resembling Leijdekkers at a non secular service attended by President Julius Maada Bio.
Nationwide police inspector normal William Fayia Sellu stated investigators had recognized the person within the images as Leijdekkers, alias “Omar Sheriff.”
Convicted cocaine smuggler Jos Leijdekkers attends a church service in Tihun, Sierra Leone, January 1, 2025, on this display screen seize obtained from a social media video.
First Girl Fatima Maada Bio by way of Fb/by way of REUTERS
“A police man-hunt has been launched to arrest him, visiting a number of places, however he has not been discovered but,” he instructed a information convention.
The 33-year-old — who authorities say is also called ‘Bolle Jos’ (“Chubby Jos”) — is on the European Union regulation enforcement company Europol’s most-wanted checklist.
“Leijdekkers is taken into account to be one of many key gamers in worldwide cocaine trafficking,” in response to 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 received right into a automobile in Amsterdam, in response to Europol. Intercepted messages allegedly confirmed that Leijdekkers “performed an necessary position in Jillal’s disappearance,” the company stated.
“For a very long time, there was no hint of Naima Jillal, till images of a lady believed to be her had been discovered on a cellphone seized within the Marengo investigation,” Europol stated. “The images present that she was most definitely tortured and might be not alive.”
Final month, the BBC reported that Dutch prosecutor Wim de Bruin stated the fugitive’s return to the Netherlands was of “the very best precedence.”
Europol has supplied a 200,000-euro ($208,000) reward for data resulting in his arrest.
Because the BBC notes, West Africa is a significant 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 car.