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Europe

Europe's 'most feared drug lord' Ridouan Taghi is jailed for life: Cartel boss who ran 'well-oiled murder machine' cocaine gang during Dutch narco wars that saw severed head dumped outside rivals' hangout is sentenced after mega trial

2024-02-28

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The trial and three more murders linked to the case have enthralled and rattled the Netherlands

Europe's 'most feared drug lord' has been jailed for life by a Dutch court after an ultra-high security mafia mega trial.

The court convicted 17 suspects today in the long-running trial of an underworld gang that planned a string of killings, known as the Marengo Trial.

Judges handed life sentences to three of them, including the gang's 'undisputed leader,' Ridouan Taghi, once the Netherlands most-wanted fugitive, at a courthouse known as the 'Bunker'.

The trial and three more murders linked to the case have enthralled and rattled the Netherlands, exposing the deadly reality of the country's drug-fuelled criminal underworld.

The court heard that Taghi - alleged to be Europe's most feared and powerful drug lord - had a simple rule: 'If you talk, you die.'

He rose through the ranks to become a cartel boss by smuggling record quantities of cocaine into Europe's ports and is said to be worth $1 billion (£789 million).

The cocaine was sourced in Panama. Are there any jihadi connections there?

Prosecutors have insisted on life sentences for Taghi, 46, who pleaded not guilty, and five of his co-defendants, for their involvement in what they called a 'well-oiled murder machine.'

At least three people directly connected to the mega six-year trial, named after a judicial codeword for the operation, have been assassinated.

The brother of a key witness, identified only as Nabil B., his lawyer and a journalist who acted as a confidante for the witness were all killed in the nearly six years since the trial opened.

Lawyer Derk Wiersum was gunned down outside his home in Amsterdam on September 18, 2019. Two men have been convicted of murder in his killing.

Journalist Peter R. de Vries was also shot in Amsterdam as he walked to his car from a television studio on July 6, 2021. He died nine days later of his injuries. Prosecutors have sought life sentences for three of the suspects in his slaying.

De Vries acted as Nabil B.'s confidant at the time of his murder and had said before he was on Taghi's hit-list.

At one point in the brutal narco battles, a severed head was placed outside a hangout used by rivals in a show of intimidation.

Finally, from our perspective, the buried lede:

Taghi was one of the Netherlands' most-wanted men until he was arrested in Dubai in 2019 and flown home to face trial. He and other defendants were charged with involvement in six murders and four attempted murders.

Despite being held at an ultra-secure prison, prosecutors say he continued pulling the strings, sending secret messages to henchmen on the outside.

Taghi's gang was nicknamed the 'Mocro-maffia' because its members are mainly of Moroccan and Antillean origin.

We got ourselves Moslem colonists, dear Reader, busily suborning their hosts from within by terror and criminality.

Posted by:Skidmark

#3 The cocaine was sourced in Panama. Are there any jihadi connections there?

Davos..

Posted by: swksvolFF 2024-02-28 14:49

#2 If they execute him, there will be a far lower chance that he will be paroled at some future date.

Posted by: Too Old To Work 2024-02-28 13:34

#1 Yupp. Moslem colonists and their criminal enterprise.

Posted by: Dron66046 2024-02-28 03:31

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