THE HAGUE — Dutch prosecutors are offering a record €2 million reward — yaani roughly ₹20 crore, about $2.2 million — for information leading to the arrest of convicted cocaine kingpin Jos Leijdekkers, one of Europe's most wanted fugitives, the authorities said on Monday. It is the highest bounty ever offered by the Dutch authorities.
Source: Reuters
The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service said the Justice Ministry had agreed to raise the previous €200,000 reward tenfold. The money will go to whoever provides the crucial tip that makes Leijdekkers' arrest possible — for example by revealing when he plans to travel, when he could be detained outside Sierra Leone — and it can be paid out within days of his arrest. Tips go to a special Netherlands Police team and are kept strictly secret, prosecutors said.
Source: Netherlands Public Prosecution Service
Sentenced to 103 years — in his absence
Leijdekkers, 35, known in the Netherlands as 'Bolle Jos' (Chubby Jos) and in Sierra Leone by the name Omar Sheriff, was sentenced in absentia by a Rotterdam court on 25 June 2024 to 24 years in prison for six cocaine transports totalling nearly 7,000 kilos, an armed robbery in Finland and commissioning a murder. A Belgian court has sentenced him to a further 79 years. The Rotterdam court calculated that he must have earned at least tens of millions of euros from cocaine trafficking, and prosecutors suspect him of laundering tens of millions of euros and hundreds of kilos of gold.
Source: Netherlands Public Prosecution Service
Dutch authorities say they are certain Leijdekkers has been living in Sierra Leone for the past years. The Netherlands has demanded his extradition, but Sierra Leone has refused to cooperate — a standoff that prompted the European Union to cut some aid to the West African country. Justice Minister David van Weel said last month that the EU had withheld €18 million in budget support over the refusal.
Source: The Spanish Eye
Prosecutors also suspect Leijdekkers of involvement in the disappearance and death of Naima Jillal, a Dutch woman who went missing in Amsterdam in October 2019; Europol has said intercepted messages allegedly indicated he played an important role in her disappearance. In a sign of how far the network reaches, GhanaWeb reported that Ghana's Narcotics Control Commission is holding three suspects accused of representing and facilitating his operations in Ghana, after French customs intercepted a major cocaine shipment.
Source: Chale News / GhanaWeb
Dutch prosecutors call capturing Leijdekkers their highest priority: he sits near the top of Europe's cocaine trade, and every legal route to him has so far been blocked by Sierra Leone's refusal to extradite. The tenfold reward is aimed at the one thing that could change that — a tip about his movements.