By Manon Demarie
EUROPE’S most wanted drug trafficker, ‘Bolle Jos,’ has once again come under fire after investigators linked his Dutch criminal network to Spain’s largest cocaine seizure. Investigators believe the shipment was part of Joseph Johannes Leijdekkers’ international trafficking network, which allegedly used Spain to transport massive amounts of cocaine to Europe.
The case has also rekindled interest in his long-standing presence on the Costa del Sol, where luxury apartments, expensive cars, and secret meetings with international gangs helped to establish Marbella as one of the feared Dutch fugitive’s key bases. Leijdekkers allegedly first purchased a luxury apartment in Puerto Banus around 2015, then used Marbella’s high-end real estate market to conceal large sums of money earned from cocaine trafficking.
The Costa del Sol has long attracted criminal organisations from all over the world due to its proximity to major ports and shipping routes, as well as its proximity to Africa. Authorities say Leijdekkers used those connections to transport cocaine from South America to Europe via Spain. He rose to prominence in the so-called Mocro mafia, a violent Dutch-Moroccan network that trafficked large amounts of drugs throughout Europe.
According to investigators, Leijdekkers spent millions on luxury items as his empire grew. Court documents and police investigations linked him to luxury watches, gold, designer items, and properties all over the world.
Dutch prosecutors believe his organisation made hundreds of millions of euros from cocaine trafficking. Marbella was also linked to some of the violence in his network. Leijdekkers has been linked to several serious crimes, including the disappearance and suspected murder of Dutch crime figure Naima Jillal. Jillal, also known as ‘the Godmother of Coke,’ operated in Marbella and Malaga before disappearing in 2019. Jillal, a Moroccan-Dutch trafficker, was regarded as one of the most powerful women in the world’s cocaine trade.
She lived on the Costa del Sol, between Marbella and Estepona, in luxury homes, just like her counterpart, the Reina de Ronda (Queen of Ronda), who inspired the novel Queen of the South.
According to Dutch media reports, Jillal used her Marbella home to arrange cocaine shipments and meet international contacts associated with the Mocro mafia, also known as the Leijdekkers network.
She allegedly worked as a high-level broker and logistics organiser, assisting in the coordination of massive cocaine shipments between South American cartels and European criminal networks.
Following her disappearance in Amsterdam in October 2019, the Guardia Civil searched her Marbella villa.
They discovered it torn apart, leading them to believe rivals or partners had already taken cash, documents, and valuables.
Naima Jillal vanished in Amsterdam in 2019. Credit: PolitieAuthorities later linked her disappearance to a violent conflict in Europe’s cocaine underworld.
Some members of the criminal network reportedly believed Jillal had given police information following several large cocaine seizures in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Prosecutors believe Leijdekkers played a key role after encrypted messages linked him to her kidnapping and death.
In an alarming development, photos that appeared to show her being tortured are being used as evidence against Ridouan Taghi, a global drug trafficker.
Amsterdam police officers searched for her body at a warehouse at the port of Antwerp, which was reportedly Leijdekkers‘ property. Credit: PolitieWhen Taghi was arrested in Dubai seven years ago, three disturbing images of a woman, believed to be Jillal, were reportedly discovered on his BlackBerry.
According to Het Parool, a Dutch newspaper, the images were added to the evidence against Taghi in the so-called Marengo case, in which he and 16 others are accused of orchestrating six murders between 2015 and 2017.
Prosecutors believed the kidnapping occurred following a failed cocaine transaction and a heated argument over money.
Investigators have long linked Taghi to the Irish international Kinahan crime gang, which fled to Dubai a decade ago as police closed in on them.
Leijdekkers has since fled multiple countries as authorities attempted to apprehend him. After spending time in Dubai and Turkey, he is now thought to be hiding in Sierra Leone under the alias Omar Sheriff.
The West African country has received increased attention since Leijdekkers appeared in a social media video alongside President Julius Maada Bio’s daughter.
Investigators believe ‘Bolle Jos’ may have spent the last two years in the country under the protection of figures with political influence.
