On Sunday night, French customs authorities intercepted a shipment of cocaine weighing many thousands of kilograms aboard a cargo ship from Ghana to Antwerp. Dutch and French investigative authorities reportedly have information indicating that the drugs in part belong to the criminal organization of fugitive Dutch drug kingpin Jos Leijdekkers, or ‘Bolle Jos,’ De Telegraaf reported. The drugs were to be delivered to a business address in Dordrecht, Belgian newspaper HLN reported.
French customs authorities decided to inspect the vessel based on intelligence reports during its final stop before Antwerp, in the port of Dunkirk. This was not a routine inspection.
Jos Leijdekkers is a Dutch fugitive drug kingpin, believed to be hiding in Sierra Leone. He has been on Sutch and Europol’s most wanted lists and has been sentenced in absentia by the Rotterdam District Court to 24 years in prison for six cocaine shipments of cocaine totalling almost 7,000 kg, among other crimes. Both Europol and the Dutch authorities are offering 200,000 euros for a tip that could lead to Leijdekkers’s arrest.
The latest case is one of several major cocaine seizures announced by French authorities in the past two weeks. A few of these also have ties to the Netherlands. On Sept. 3 at the Galaure rest stop in the southbound lanes, a Dutch man in his forties was arrested after Customs found 347 kilograms of cocaine in a truck on the A7 in the Drôme region, valued at 13 million euros.
On July 17, a Spanish driver who was taking a nap in a truck with Dutch license plates raised suspicion with customs workers in Dijon. They pulled the vehicle over when the 32-year-old hit the road again and inspected the truck at the La Loyèr rest stop. Within an air conditioning system, investigators found over 165 kilograms of cocaine.
More recently in Dijon, a Dutch driver was pulled over in a Dutch-plated truck on Aug. 27, and investigators found over 231 kilograms of cocaine. It was again hidden in the ventilation compartment. “From the outset of the inspection, the driver’s demeanor and the low declared value of the cargo, consisting of Spanish sparkling wines, prompted Customs officers to conduct a more thorough check and inspect the entire load,” investigators said. While the cargo matched the declaration, a full search of the truck cab led to the discovery of the cocaine. “The street value of this drug was estimated at nearly 6.8 million euros,” according to a press release from the Customs office.
During a raid on Friday to Saturday, Gendarmes in the Pyrénées-Orientales intercepted a three-vehicle convoy carring nearly a ton of cocaine from Spain. Two of the officers were slightly injured when the “driver of a high-powered vehicle deliberately rammed a police car.” One of the drivers, a man from Paris, was arrested.
On August 17, a British truck on the A71 in Bourges was inspected and found to be holding 109 kilograms in a hidden compartment within a refrigerated portion of the vehicle. Less than ten days earlier, a truck was also pulled over in the region and was found to be carrying 243 kilograms of cocaine.
Source: nltimes
