One of the biggest cocaine traffickers in the world is a Dutch fugitive named Jos Leijdekkers. As Alexander Clapp reports at Economist“Chubby Jos” went in the space of a decade from the status of a hitman in the Netherlands to that of organizer of a network which brings in more than 2 billion dollars a year. Bricks of cocaine stamped with her underworld name “Holly”, short for Hollywood, have been recovered across the world. His rapid rise surprised criminologists, but “Leijdekkers’ greatest adventure appears to be the takeover of a country,” Clapp writes. This country is Sierra Leone. Clapp traces how Leijdekkers infiltrated the West African country in 2022 under the pseudonym “Omar Sheriff”, bought influence from the capital’s slums to the president’s inner circle and helped redirect a significant portion of the Latin American cocaine trade through the country.
He is suspected of holding a diplomatic passport, financing elements of the security forces and even having had a child with the daughter of President Julius Maada Bio, all while being wanted in Europe for alleged trafficking and murders. Clapp explains how Sierra Leone’s weak institutions, history of conflict and economic desperation have made it fertile ground for what experts call “narco-capture” – referring to the capture of a state by drug cartels – with cocaine flows now estimated to be the equivalent of a quarter of the country’s GDP. European authorities considered kidnapping-style operations, but attempts to arrest Leijdekkers repeatedly failed. The article ends with the author spotting Leijdekkers in Freetown, being greeted by police officers as he walked towards a police station. Read the full story.
Gn world
