A Belgian court sentenced Dutch fugitive drug trafficker Jos Leijdekkers and nineteen others to prison terms ranging from one and a half to ten years in a major drug case.
The judge found them guilty of importing more than 11 tons of cocaine from Sierra Leone. The drugs were hidden inside a container that entered the country through the Port of Antwerp in October 2023. This is one of the largest drug seizures ever recorded in Belgium, with a street value of 550 million euros. The drugs were supposed to be picked up by one of Leijdekkers’ accomplices; however, the shipment was discovered after an altercation alerted maritime authorities.
This dispute had erupted between Leijdekkers’ truck driver and a competitor’s driver, who was also at the port to collect the container. According to the court, the rival had also hired accomplices with the express purpose of stealing the drugs. In this case, suspects from both factions were tried together. The judge determined that Leijdekkers—also known as “Bolle Jos”—was the main figure in the operation. He arranged for transportation from Sierra Leone, where he is reportedly currently residing, to Belgium. Leijdekkers received a sentence of eight years in prison.
He was also ordered to pay an 80,000-euro fine and banned from all ports for ten years. In total, 22 suspects were tried on charges ranging from criminal organisation to drug smuggling. Two were acquitted. The remaining defendants were all ordered to pay fines ranging from 4,000 to 80,000 euros. In addition, eleven of the defendants were sentenced to a ten-year port ban. Multiple convictions Leijdekkers has previously been convicted in absentia in Belgium.
At the time, he received eight and seven years in prison for drug importation. He was also convicted of assaulting a security guard at the Port of Antwerp, for which he was sentenced to ten years in prison. In the Netherlands, he was sentenced to up to 24 years in prison in 2024 for smuggling 7,000 kilograms of cocaine through the Rotterdam and Antwerp ports, among other offences.
