Gang wars and contract killings, a crown princess who can't study carefree, threats against the head of government: what sounds like a fictional thriller about the power of the drug cartels is reality for the Dutch. The trial of suspected drug lord Ridouan Taghi has highlighted the brutal methods used by his "Mocro Mafia" in the country. And the recent busting of a "super cartel" in Dubai linked to Taghi has fueled fears that the liberal country could be on the way to becoming a drug state.
Taghi was arrested in Dubai in 2019. The trial against him and 16 co-defendants for murder and attempted murder is currently underway under the highest security precautions. From his cell, however, Taghi is said to still be pulling the strings and ordering further murders.
The acts of the so-called "mocro-mafia" revealed during the trial, whose members, like Taghi, mostly have Moroccan roots, and their brutal methods of intimidating witnesses, politicians and journalists have "triggered a great shock," says the criminal specialist Journalist Jan Meeus from the AFP news agency. He speaks of an "ultimate test" for the liberal constitutional state.
Three men linked to key witness Nabil B. have already been brutally killed, including well-known crime reporter Peter R. de Vries.
The reporter, who made a name for himself through his role in solving high-profile crime cases and speaking up for victims, was gunned down while exiting a television studio in Amsterdam on July 6, 2021 and died in hospital nine days later. Before his death, he acted as B.'s confidante - and said he was on Taghi's hit list.
The brother of the main witness was murdered in 2018, his lawyer Derk Wiersum was shot in front of his house in 2019. Meeus says plans have also been uncovered to use "extreme force" to get Taghi out of prison.
For the first time in the history of the Netherlands, the "bunker" in Amsterdam, where Taghi is being tried, is being guarded by the army. Judges and prosecutors come to hearings in armored vehicles.
The threat has reached the highest levels of Dutch society. Crown Princess Catharina-Amalia recently had to give up her plans to live in a student residence for security reasons. According to media reports, King Willem-Alexander's 19-year-old daughter, like Prime Minister Mark Rutte, was mentioned in messages from criminal gangs - fueling fears that they could be attacked or kidnapped.
The "Mocro Maffia" is notorious for the brutal violence of its mostly young members. The public prosecutor's office accuses them of having "no respect for human life". They call their victims "dogs" who have to be "sleeped".
The extreme violence is forcing the authorities to deal with the extent of organized crime and its multi-billion dollar parallel economy. The police union NPB has been sounding the alarm for years: its chairman Jan Struijs warns that the country is slowly developing into a "narco state". He blames the lax policy on soft drugs.
Author Marijn Schrijver, co-author of the bestseller "Mocro Maffia", sees the reason in The Hague's tax policy: "We are a tax haven. We want to import and transport as much as possible through our ports, and that makes the Netherlands the perfect place from a logistical point of view Location."
The "super cartel" headquartered in Dubai, which was smashed at the end of November and, according to Europol, "controlled around a third of the cocaine trade in Europe", also used the port of Rotterdam in addition to Antwerp in Belgium to smuggle cocaine from Latin America to Europe.
