EUROPE’S most wanted drug trafficker ‘Bolle Jos’ has once again come under the spotlight after investigators linked his Dutch criminal network to Spain’s biggest ever cocaine seizure.
Investigators believe the shipment formed part of Joseph Johannes Leijdekkers’ international trafficking network, which allegedly used Spain to move huge quantities of cocaine into Europe.
The case has also renewed attention on his long-running presence on the Costa del Sol, where luxury apartments, expensive cars and secret meetings with international gangs helped turn Marbella into one of the key bases used by the feared Dutch fugitive.
Leijdekkers reportedly first bought a luxury apartment in Puerto Banus around 2015 and then used Marbella’s high-end property market to hide huge amounts of money earned from cocaine trafficking.
The Costa del Sol has long attracted criminal groups from around the world because of its links to major ports and shipping routes, as well as close geography to Africa.
Authorities say Leijdekkers used those connections to move cocaine from South America into Europe through Spain.
He became one of the leading figures in the so-called Mocro mafia, the violent Dutch-Moroccan network involved in large drug shipments across Europe.
According to investigators, Leijdekkers spent millions on luxury goods while his empire expanded.
Court documents and police investigations linked him to expensive watches, gold, designer items and properties around the world.
Dutch prosecutors believe his organisation generated hundreds of millions of euros through cocaine trafficking.
Marbella also became linked to some of the violence surrounding his network.
Leijdekkers has been connected to serious crimes, including the disappearance – and believed murder – of Dutch crime figure Naima Jillal.
Jillal, also known as ‘the Godmother of coke’, operated around Marbella and Malaga before vanishing in 2019.
Jillal, a Moroccan-Dutch trafficker, was considered one of the most powerful women in the world’s cocaine trade.
Like her counterpart – the Reina de Ronda (Queen of Ronda) on which the book Queen of the South is based – she lived on the Costa del Sol, living between Marbella and Estepona in luxury homes.
Dutch media reports claimed Jillal used her Marbella home to arrange cocaine shipments and meet international contacts linked to the Mocro mafia, the network of Leijdekkers.
She allegedly worked as a high-level broker and logistics organiser, helping coordinate massive cocaine shipments between South American cartels and criminal networks in Europe.
Following her disappearance in Amsterdam in October 2019, the Guardia Civil raided her Marbella villa.
They found it torn apart, which made them think rivals or partners had already removed cash, documents and valuables.
Authorities later linked her disappearance to a violent dispute inside Europe’s cocaine underworld.
Some figures in the criminal network reportedly believed Jillal had passed information to police after several major cocaine seizures in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Prosecutors suspect Leijdekkers played a major role after encrypted messages allegedly connected him to her kidnapping and death.
In an alarming development, photos that appareared to show her subject to torture are being used as evidence against global drug trafficker Ridouan Taghi.
Three disturbing images of a woman, believed to be Jillal, were reportedly found on a BlackBerry when Taghi was arrested in Dubai seven years ago.
According to Het Parool, a Dutch newspaper, the pictures were added to the evidence against Taghi in the so-called Marengo case, in which he and 16 others are accused of organising six murders between 2015 and 2017.
Prosecutors believed the kidnapping happened after a failed cocaine deal and a huge argument over money.
Investigators have long linked Taghi to the Irish international Kinahan crime gang, who fled to Dubai a decade ago as police closed in on their operation.
Leijdekkers has since fled several countries while authorities tried to arrest him. After spending time in Dubai and Turkey, he is now believed to be hiding in Sierra Leone under the alias Omar Sheriff.
Attention has increasingly focused on the West African country after Leijdekkers appeared in a social media video alongside the daughter of president Julius Maada Bio.
Investigators believe ‘Bolle Jos’ may have spent the past two years there under protection from figures linked to the country’s political power.
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