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2024-03-29T08:06:39Z
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The Black Cobra: Profile of Dutch crime boss Henk Orlando Rommy
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/dutch-boss-henk-orlando-rommy
2021-01-26T16:56:37.000Z
2021-01-26T16:56:37.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236976455,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" /></p>
<p><br /> By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a><br /> Posted on November 1, 2008 - Updated January 26, 2021<br /> <br /> Henk Orlando Rommy is born in Paramaribo, Suriname on March 4, 1951. Suriname is a former colony of The Netherlands and the two nations still have strong links. Many Suriname citizens decide to move to The Netherlands in search of a better life. Rommy's parents made the move when he was 3 years old. The family settles in Utrecht, Netherlands' fourth largest city. Rommy attends a Catholic boys school, and does very well. His grades are excellent and Rommy shows his skills as an athlete by coming in second during the 1966 Olympiade 400 meter sprint.<br /> <br /> After finishing his school Rommy begins working at an airplane factory in Switzerland. The job turns out to be a disappointment, put in simpler terms: it didn't pay very well. He decides to go back to The Netherlands and make a lot of money, and if not a lot then definitely easy money.<br /> <br /> By the late 1970s Rommy is involved in used cars and stolen antiques. In 1977 he is arrested and convicted for trying to fence stolen art which included a Rembrandt and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.<br /> <br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9236976876,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236976876,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236976876?profile=original" width="152" height="187" /></a>Prison is a great school for smalltime crooks. Men with interesting connections meet other men who also have interesting connections. The moment Rommy was released from prison he became heavily involved in trafficking hashish. Through a contact in Morocco Rommy manages to smuggle large amounts of hashish to The Netherlands and Belgium. At one point he is arrested in Morocco and is put on death row for 18 months before getting pardoned because of the birthday of Moroccan King Hassan. After this scare he has time to think about the bullet he dodged by sitting in a Belgian cell where he has to serve another sentence for drug smuggling.<br /> <br /> Rommy does his time and when he gets out, he goes right back to his lucrative crime business. Working closely with crime boss Johan Verhoek he becomes one of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Europe" target="_blank">Europe</a>'s most powerful drug dealers. By the beginning of the 1990s he is involved in trafficking both hard and soft <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a>. In 1992 his Moroccan hashish connection dries up, but he quickly finds a new contact in Pakistan, and business continues as usual.<br /> <br /> Rommy's organization is smuggling drugs to Canada and Britain and is making hundreds of millions. In 1993 Dutch justice estimated his organization had a turnover of 120 million dollars. Rommy has become a very wealthy man, his mansions throughout The Netherlands and Spain prove it. And as his nickname "The Black Cobra" suggests, he is also very deadly.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236976685,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236976685?profile=original" width="155" height="180" /></a>Rommy has never been convicted of ordering or committing a murder, but has been a suspect in several unsolved murders. Among those are the murders of fellow drug traffickers Ton de Bruin, Charly Wong, and Jaap van der Heijden (who was blown away by a bomb which was detonated when he opened his front door).<br /> <br /> At the beginning of the new millennium Rommy was enjoying the good life in the south of Spain. He is involved in lucrative real estate deals and has some other ventures going as well, some legal, others not so. On April 4, 2003 he is arrested and charged with importing 1000 kilos of hashish from Spain. Rommy says he doesn't need to import hashish to The Netherlands because there is enough home grown hashish to supply the market. But to no avail, Rommy is found guilty and sentenced to an amazing one year sentence. Thanks to a shortage of cells Rommy is released three months early.<br /> <br /> Luck runs out at one point and it was no different for Rommy. On November 12, 2003 he is arrested in Malaga, Spain. This time he faces a very different opponent: the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=DEA" target="_blank">DEA</a>. After losing his fight against extradition to the US, Rommy faces a very tough time. Awaiting his trial in New York he is housed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center where he shares a cell with mob boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gotti" target="_blank">John "Junior" Gotti</a>. Junior Gotti advises him to take a plea deal, because eventhough the case is weak, the prosecution usually wins. But Rommy is defiant and takes his chances in court.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236978253,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236978253?profile=original" width="165" height="220" /></a>During the trial it becomes known Rommy was lured to the Bermuda Islands by a friend who was working for the DEA. At the Sonesta Beach Resort Rommy, his friend, and another man who claims to represent an Israeli gang from New York discuss setting up an ecstacy pipeline from The Netherlands to the US. Rommy is also asked if he can deliver MDMA (an important ingredient in ecstacy). On September 30, 2006 Rommy is found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>UPDATE: January 26, 2021</strong></span> - On Friday, January 22, 2021, Rommy (right) arrived in the Netherlands, after finishing his 20-year sentence. He was released two years early. The 69-year-old crime boss was immediately placed under arrest by Dutch authorities. He is charged with ordering the double murder of drug boss and jeweler Hennie Shamel and his girlfriend Anne de Witte, who were shot to death in May of 1993 in the center of Antwerp, Belgium. At that time, Rommy owed Shamel €1 million euros. </p>
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<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Profile of Moroccan drug boss Ridouan Taghi - “He who talks, goes. And everyone around him goes to sleep”
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/profile-of-moroccan-drug-boss-ridouan-taghi-he-who-talks-goes-and
2019-12-17T10:00:00.000Z
2019-12-17T10:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-moroccan-drug-boss-ridouan-taghi-he-who-talks-goes-and" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237106866,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237106866?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Some criminal masterminds appear out of nowhere. Ridouan Taghi is that type of gangster. The Moroccan-Dutch drug boss wasn’t known to the public or police until he had already flooded Europe with drugs and littered the streets with bullet-riddled bodies. It wasn't long before he became one of Europe's most wanted fugitives.</p>
<p>Born on December 20, 1977, in Morocco and raised in the small Dutch city of Vianen, Taghi allegedly eased into his role as one of Europe’s biggest narcotics traffickers by inheriting the routes his grandpa used to smuggle hashish from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Morocco" target="_blank">Morocco</a> to Europe. This is vehemently denied by Taghi’s lawyer, however, who says Taghi’s grandfather was a respected mayor until his retirement.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-real-narcos-profile-of-miguel-angel-felix-gallardo-mexico-s-e" target="_blank">The Real Narcos</a>: Profile of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Mexico’s “El Padrino” of drug lords</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>If this is how Taghi got his start in the underworld then he was able to keep an extremely low profile for a very long time. The first time his name is mentioned in a police report is in 2015 when authorities bust a hit team which committed murders ordered by organized crime bosses. Taghi was never charged in that investigation.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The Moroccan Keyser Söze</strong></span></p>
<p>Still, he was finally on police’s radar. Not that it helped them build a case, though. Just like the fictional Keyser Söze, Taghi had already vanished without a trace. In 2009 he officially left <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Netherlands" target="_blank">the Netherlands</a> to move somewhere abroad. Where? Nobody knows. Police believe he is traveling under several false identities and might be staying anywhere from Mexico and Colombia to Dubai.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-real-dea-agents-of-narcos-javier-pena-and-steve-murphy-talk-a" target="_blank"><strong>The Real DEA Agents of Narcos Talk Fact & Fiction</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>After 2015, investigators step up their game and with the help of several informants, they are able to paint a more complete picture of Taghi’s personality and career. One turncoat says Taghi gets his <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Panama" target="_blank">Panama</a> and ships it via Morocco into Europe.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237107663,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237107663?profile=original" /></a><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Everyone around him goes to sleep”</strong></span></p>
<p>What stuns investigators most is how much violence Taghi uses to run his organization. Even against his own inner circle. He allegedly had a relative killed in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spain" target="_blank">Spain</a> in 2013 due to a disagreement over a drug shipment, one informant tells investigators.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/iran-allegedly-protects-moroccan-dutch-drug-gangsters-it-used-to" target="_blank">Iran allegedly protects Moroccan Dutch gangsters</a> it used to murder its “enemies of the state” abroad</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>By talking about these crimes, the informant earns himself and his family a death sentence as well, he confides in police. “He who talks, goes. And everyone around him goes to sleep,” Taghi allegedly told him.</p>
<p>Six days after his cooperation agreement is made public, an assassin murders the informant’s brother at his legitimate company in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Amsterdam" target="_blank">Amsterdam</a>. The killer had made an appointment for an internship, but instead shot the man for the life choices of his brother. He was caught on security cameras and arrested shortly thereafter.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Attacking his enemies and the media</strong></span></p>
<p>If the rumors and testimony are to be believed, Taghi is a man who rules by sheer force and terror. Dutch authorities believe he is also behind the attacks on the offices of newspaper <em>De Telegraaf</em> and weekly magazine <em>Panorama</em>, after both outlets published stories about his activities.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237108053,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237108053?profile=original" /></a>More proof of his Taghi’s lust for violence came in 2016 when authorities cracked the Canadian servers of Ennetcom, a company that provided encryption software for mobile phones used by Taghi and members of his organization. The text messages were encrypted with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) but, once decoded, gave investigators an inside look at Taghi’s aggressive leadership style.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Patrón</strong></span></p>
<p>Taghi’s brothers are also part of his criminal enterprise and frequently send texts on his behalf. Taghi is called Pat, short for “Patrón” or boss, by his underlings during these chats about <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murder</a> and mayhem.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/smirking-and-laughing-as-his-victims-died-violent-deaths-profile" target="_blank"><strong>Profile of Irish mob hitman “Fat Freddie” Thompson</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>“Pat just told me that he’s gonna pay you guys handsomely, sir,” Taghi’s brother Morad writes to a member of a murder team. “Pat even said that if you do him in broad daylight you will get paid even better. You deserve it. You show more than any of my crews ever did. You’ve got balls and know what you have to do. You work well together. I love it. That’s working.”</p>
<p>After the 2016 killing of Samir Erraghib, who was shot to death in front of his little daughter, Taghi himself writes to one of his underlings: “Serves that son of a bitch right. Giving up information on our group.”</p>
<p>The man agrees, replying: “He’s a first-class snitch.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Mistaken identity</strong></span></p>
<p>Taghi loves murder. Investigators claim he is involved in at least twenty hits in the past few years. But his eagerness causes his hitmen to make fatal errors. On two different occasions in 2017 they murdered the wrong man. One innocent man was shot to death in Utrecht, the Netherlands, while a second man was blasted to death in Marrakech in Morocco.</p>
<p>The Moroccan victim turned out to be the son of a judge and authorities there began a vicious hunt for the killers. They arrested a slew of men. Police in Morocco have a reputation for using torture to get the information they desire and it didn’t take them long to flip one assassin and get him to spill the beans on Taghi and his brothers, who were arrested soon after.</p>
<p>The big boss man, though, remained elusive. In November of 2018, Dutch police offered the highest reward in the country’s history: €100,000 euros for information leading to his capture or the arrest of his second-in-command Said Razzouki. Taghi was also placed on <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Europol" target="_blank">Europol</a>’s list of Most Wanted criminals.</p>
<p>Far away, out of reach from the law, operating in the shadows, he continued to haunt his enemies.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Busted in Dubai</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>UPDATE - December 17, 2019:</strong></span></p>
<p>Until the night of December 16, 2019. In cooperation with Dutch police, authorities in Dubai had been able to find the elusive crime boss. While Taghi was asleep at his villa in Dubai, where he had been living under a false identity, they raided his residence and placed him under arrest.</p>
<p>After Dutch authorities put up a $100,000 reward for his capture, Taghi had upped the ante as well. After allegedly ordering the murder of the brother of a witness against him, he had already shocked the Netherlands to its core. But in September of this year, he allegedly went even further.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Killing a lawyer</strong></span></p>
<p>A hit team had been following attorney Derk Wiersum's every move for several weeks. Then, on the early morning of September 18, they pounced. The 44-year-old lawyer had just exited his home in Amsterdam when an assassin shot and killed him. The hitman then jumped in a getaway car driven by a second culprit.</p>
<p>Before his murder, Wiersum was working as the attorney of the witness against Taghi. The same witness whose brother had been assassinated. All fingers pointed to the fugitive crime boss. Especially when police began making arrests in the murder case and busted Taghi's 26-year-old cousin Anouar Taghi.</p>
<p>With the big boss himself in handcuffs, we will find out in a court of law whether or not he was the criminal mastermind behind a wave of vicious gangland killings that rocked Europe. More importantly, we will find out if justice will be served. Either way, with Taghi behind bars, a lot of people will sleep a lot better.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Life in prison</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>UPDATE - February 27, 2024:</strong></span> Moroccan-Dutch crime boss Ridouan Taghi was sentenced to life in prison today in a court in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He was found guilty of six murders, four attempted murders, and several murder plots. Full story: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/moroccan-dutch-crime-boss-ridouan-taghi-gets-life-in-prison">Moroccan-Dutch crime boss Ridouan Taghi gets life in prison</a></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
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Britain’s biggest ever drugs pipeline busted by National Crime Agency – Billions worth’ of drugs smuggled
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/britain-s-biggest-ever-drugs-pipeline-busted-by-national-crime-ag
2019-10-10T20:30:00.000Z
2019-10-10T20:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/britain-s-biggest-ever-drugs-pipeline-busted-by-national-crime-ag" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237126087,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237126087?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) calls it “an industrial-scale operation – the biggest ever uncovered in the United Kingdom” involving the importation of over 50 tons of drugs worth billions of pounds from the Netherlands into the UK.</p>
<p>Thirteen men, aged between 24 and 59, were apprehended during dawn raids on Tuesday, in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=London" target="_blank">London</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Manchester" target="_blank">Manchester</a>, Stockport, St Helens, Warrington, Bolton, Dewsbury, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Leeds" target="_blank">Leeds</a>. They are believed to be part of the British arm of a well-established organized crime group that used Dutch and British front companies to import <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">cannabis</a> – secreted within lorry loads of vegetables and juice – through United Kingdom ports over an 18-month period.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-untouchables-how-britain-s-top-gangsters-rich-off-armed-robbe" target="_blank">The Untouchables</a>: How Britain’s top gangsters got rich off armed robberies and smuggling tons of drugs</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Four men and two women from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Netherlands" target="_blank">the Netherlands</a> were also arrested in April by the Dutch National Police on European Arrest Warrants. They are currently awaiting extradition to the Britain.</p>
<p>“We suspect these men were involved in an industrial-scale operation – the biggest ever uncovered in the UK – bringing in tons of deadly drugs that were distributed to crime groups throughout the country,” Jayne Lloyd, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=NCA" target="_blank">NCA</a> Regional Head of Investigations, said. “By working closely with partners here and overseas, in particular the Dutch National Police, we believe we have dismantled a well-established drug supply route.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Start of investigation</strong></span></p>
<p>The full extent of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug trafficking</a> operation the NCA allege these men were involved in was uncovered following the interception of three consignments in September 2018. They contained 351 kilos of cocaine, 92 kilos of heroin, 250 kilos of cannabis and 1,850 kilos of hemp/hashish, with a total street value of more than £38 million.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237125889,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237125889?profile=original" /></a>Subsequent enquiries led officers to believe they had imported drugs on numerous occasions between February 2017 and October 2018. This investigation linked to an NCA operation, where 13 individuals were jailed for a total of 176 years, after the seizure of more than 100kg of heroin in 2015.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-british-drug-boss-robert-the-voice-dawes-he-was-prepar" target="_blank"><strong>British drug boss Robert “The Voice” Dawes</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Europol, Eurojust, Police of Finland National Bureau of Investigation, Border Force, HMRC and numerous police forces have also supported the NCA with the investigation.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The accused</strong></span></p>
<p>The following men have been remanded to custody: Paul Green (DoB 26/03/65), of Eccleston, St Helens; Sohail Quereshi (DoB 08/07/60), Wood Crescent, White City, London; Mohammed Ovais (DoB 18/01/78), of Bournlee Avenue, Burnage, Manchester; Khaleed Vazeer (DoB 09/11/62), of Westwood Avenue, Timperley, Manchester; Steven Martin (DoB 12/04/71), of Chorley Old Road, Bolton; Mark Peers (DoB 07/02/64), of Norbeck Close, Warrington; Oliver Penter (DoB 01/07/82), of Gladstone Street, Stockport.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237127056,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237127056?profile=original" /></a>Andrew Reilly (DoB 24/11/81) of Grange Park Road, St Helens; Paul Ruane (DoB 25/01/65), of Bewsey Rd, Warrington; Ghazanfar Mahmood (DoB 03/12/70), of Green Lane, Bolton; Ifthikar Hussain (DoB 26/08/73) of Upland Grove, Leeds, West Yorkshire; Vojtech Dano (DoB 23/09/81), of Vulcan Gardens, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire; and Ivan Turtak (DoB 30/08/85), of Vulcan Gardens, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, have been released on bail.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/london-based-albanian-cocaine-gang-sent-to-prison" target="_blank"><strong>London-based Albanian cocaine gang sent to prison</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>All are due to appear at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square, on November 7, 2019.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
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Dutch Crime Boss Murdered In Broad Daylight
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/dutch-crime-boss-murdered-in
2011-02-23T18:00:00.000Z
2011-02-23T18:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/dutch-crime-boss-murdered-in"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237003900,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237003900?profile=original" width="495" /></a></p>
<p>By David Amoruso<br /> <br /> Another one bites the dust. On Monday, one of the most powerful gangsters in The Netherlands was the latest to be added to an impressive list of Dutch underworld murders. Crime boss Stanley Hillis (64) was shot to death as he sat in his SUV at an Amsterdam parking lot around 12.30 in the afternoon. According to local newspaper <a href="http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/7/MISDAAD/article/detail/1851201/2011/02/23/Hillis-had-afspraak-met-oude-misdaadpartner.dhtml" target="_blank">Het Parool</a>, he was scheduled to meet Donald G., another top crime figure and one that was a former associate of his. <br /> <br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9237004460,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237004460,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237004460?profile=original" width="249" /></a>Hillis (right) is a well-known name in the criminal world. After spending some time in the French foreign legion, he started out as a bank robber, working closely with the Serb Zeljko Raznjatovic, also known as Arkan, who would become a notorious warlord during the civil war in Yugoslavia. By the 1990s, Hillis had become one of the leading members of the Amsterdam underworld. He was rumored to be involved in drug trafficking, smuggling hashish and ecstasy. <br /> <br /> In theory, crime bosses should be relatively safe from the violence that takes place on the streets that fall under their supposed rule. In The Netherlands, however, many top criminal figures have been killed in rapid succession. The first one to fall was Klaas Bruinsma, who was shot to death in front of the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam in 1991. In the two decades that followed many men would end up the same way. Including several close associates of Hillis. The murders are said to stem from a war between home-grown Dutch gangsters and a group of Serbs led by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/serbian-boss-sreten-jocic">Sreten Jocic</a>, but much is still unknown about who ordered certain killings and who executed the orders. Hillis’ name also came up in numerous investigations and during trials, but he was never charged.<br /> <br /> With the death of Stanley Hillis the Dutch underworld loses yet another big name. Dutch weekly <a href="https://www.vn.nl/Dossiers/Meer-dossiers/Crime/Artikel-Crime/De-Kouwe-Ouwe-Hollandse-maffiabaas-Stanley-H..htm" target="_blank">Vrij Nederland</a> reported Hillis was viewed as a Dutch “capo di tutti capi”, and with the imprisonment of ‘famous’ gangsters such as Dino Soerel and Willem Holleeder, the media was focusing a lot of attention on Hillis as the new leading man. Hillis himself, meanwhile, was spending more and more time abroad, in Spain and the Dutch Antilles. According to his lawyer, he was more worried about a possible police investigation into his alleged criminal activities than hit men looking to put him to sleep. <br /> <br /> Police are asking witnesses to step forward with any information. The assassin, or assassins, managed to flee the crime scene and is/are still on the run. As of yet, nothing is known about the possible motive behind the gangland killing. What is clear, is that the life of the man known as “<a href="https://www.vn.nl/Archief/Justitie/Artikel-Justitie/De-Ouwe-is-koud.htm" target="_blank">the old guy</a>” because he had survived for so long in a world filled with treachery and violence has come to an end. What will happen next, is anyone’s guess. <br /> </p>
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Dutch gangster Ferry Koch: King of the Rip
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/ferry-koch-king-of-the-rip
2010-11-05T14:44:56.000Z
2010-11-05T14:44:56.000Z
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<div><p>By Steve Brown<br /> Posted on March 16, 2008<br /> <br /> Steve Brown is a former drug smuggler who has written five books on organized crime in The Netherlands. He also has a weblog which you can visit by clicking <a href="http://www.stevenbrown.web-log.nl/">here</a>.<br /> <br /> When I was making the tv program "Tough Guys" (Zware Jongens) for Dutch tv network Veronica I wanted to interview a few 'rippers'. Of course that would be an exciting item. The first man I wanted to interview was Ferry Koch. Unfortunately for the viewers I could not interview him anymore since he had already been murdered. But because I had been friends with him for many years I can tell you something about this 'King of the Rip'.<br /> <br /> <img style="float:right;" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236979099,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" />Ferry made the underworld tremble in fear for many years. His name was synonimous with ripping and fucking. He had come up with many ways of ripping off fellow criminals; from using extreme violence to the refined sting. Unfortunately his career ended the way the career of most people who steal from criminals ends. Upon arriving at his house one morning he was hit with nine bullets. The shots were presumably fired by Martin Hoogland (photo on the right, who was later convicted of the murder of Klaas Bruinsma and himself killed a few years ago.) I assume it was Martin because Martin told me, mostly when he was stoned, all the gory bloody details himself when we were drinking in a bar. What can I say, during the late 1980s and early 1990s people weren't so secretive about a murder more or less. The patrol cop was sitting next to us like he didn't care, so to speak.<br /> <br /> Before that fatal day, Ferry already had survived an attempt on his life, catching seven bullets in the process. After being shot Ferry drove himself to the Slotervaart hospital (in Amsterdam). The fact that he was still alive was a miracle. After the much needed surgery Ferry told the police nothing. He took care of this type of 'business' himself.<br /> <br /> He kept thinking Charlie Wong (by now also murdered) was behind the assassination attempt. Ferry and Wong were involved in a long running conflict about a villa in Friesland (Dutch northern province), which Ferry had ripped from Wong, when Wong was in prison.<br /> <br /> Shortly thereafter Ferry himself shot two men in a nightclub in Rotterdam in connection with a 'rip' of five kilos of coke. They had the nerve to ask him what happened to their kilos. One of the men had about five bullets in his leg. Ferry had fired away in the nightclub. And oddly enough non of the 400 people who were there had seen anything. After the shooting a content Ferry drove his mercedes back to Amsterdam.<br /> <br /> Ferry's foremost activities were much like those of his Yugoslavian colleagues, being the broker between conflicts between gangsters, where Ferry, just like the Yugos, takes the money off of both parties. It is no surprise then that Ferry always got along with the Yugoslavian gangs of both Paja and Duja, even working together with them at times.<br /> <br /> Ferry's life saying was: "Together against". He had made enough money to be set for life, and always wore expensive clothes and outragious jewelry. He wore a $90,000 Rolex watch with a wristband filled with rubies and diamants. Even the watch dial was blinking with diamants. It would make a magpie go blind. But you also saw Ferry wearing brightly colored track suits that made your eyes hurt. For the weekends Ferry drove a classic Auburn, green, with golden spoilers and golden rims. Every now and then I had to ride along for a drive around the Dam. Ferry wore an English lord cap and I sat beside him in that cabrio sports car. While waiting in front of a traffic light crowds gathered, people looked at us as if we were Batman and Robin in the batmobile. Ferry would always say "ain't this nice?". Later the 'Ferry-mobile' would turn to ashes in front of my house in the Michelangelostraat in Oud-Zuid, the upscale neighborhood of Amsterdam. 'My' neighbors looked on in disgust at the burning car and us. All this in their nice posh neighborhood.<br /> <br /> Ferry had one leg which dragged a bit. He was a bit overweight, and had the appearance of a pig, not really that awful, but with those beady eyes. But Ferry had sex at least once every day. And also drove through the Red Light District once every day. "Looking at crotches" he called that. And I'll be damned, in the beginning of our friendship I drove along with him a couple of times. He made a lengthy stop whenever he saw a 'babe' and watched her till he had had a thorough look at her crotch.<br /> <br /> All the hookers knew Ferry and waived at him when he passed by. He would also go inside to 'get some information', as he put it. We also attended a party held by a well known female drugdealer one time, when Ferry came downstairs all heated up saying 'Steve you'll never guess who's crotch I was just in.' 'Well, who?' He then said the name of a famous Dutch tv star. 'Steve, she'll do anything for some coke. Come on.' This tv diva has since had everybody with a bit of money or cocaine in her crotch, and is still going strong: a real die-hard.<br /> <br /> Ferry snorted a gram of cocaine a day, and you never noticed a thing about him. He was the exception regarding that. He didn't sleep more than two hours a day. How he did this was a riddle to me. During Ferry's days we drove back and forth through The Netherlands, worked hard and there were a lot of shootings in connection with our 'conflict brokering'.<br /> <br /> <img style="float:left;" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236979474,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" />Ferry is the only person who, during the early days of Godfather Klaas Bruinsma (photo on the left), slapped the crime boss around. From that day on he had a special place in the (stone) heart of Bruinsma. But Ferry was proud of that. It meant something to be the only person who slapped the most feared man in The Netherlands. Bruinsma walked around with a red cheek for several days.<br /> <br /> The run-up to Ferry's murder had a lot to do with his agressive behaviour. Before his death Ferry had stolen a stash of 150 kilos of hashish from Bruinsma. The group had warned Ferry that this was the last time that he would rip their drugs. Bruinsma had let him know during a short chance meeting.<br /> <br /> After that Bruinsma sent his personal bodyguard Geurt Roos to Ferry's house to give him a second warning. Bruinsma had given Roos a letter, which he had to give to Ferry, hoping to avoid Roos fucking up the warning. The warning was a bit like this: 'You have to return the whole stash and pay a fine. If you rip us again, you die.'<br /> <br /> Ferry, not a fool himself, accepted the warning in front of his house. Behind the front door an associate of his was waiting with a gun in hand. Shortly thereafter Ferry was killed. Ferry arrived at his house at his usual time of 6am, where Martin Hoogland (according to Martin himself) awaited him wearing a baseball cap and fired seven or nine bullets into his body. Ferry had tried to reach for his gun which he kept in his car, but died trying. Martin sprayed the whole bloody scene with a can to make the job impossible for the police dogs. The mercedes must have looked like a colander, just like Ferry. </p>
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Profile of Dutch crime boss John Mieremet
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/dutch-boss-john-mieremet
2010-11-05T14:30:00.000Z
2010-11-05T14:30:00.000Z
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<div><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236978501,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236978501?profile=original" /></span></p>
<p><br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">By David Amoruso</span><br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Posted: January 24, 2007</span><br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Johannes “Johnny” Mieremet was born in 1960. He grew up in the West of Amsterdam. Mieremet started his life of crime as a teenager, stealing motorcycles and doing small robberies. Small robberies turned into big robberies when Mieremet was a member of a gang called “The Thinkers,” a gang that committed several big robberies. As the nickname shows, the gang planned every score in detail. In the mid 1980s law enforcement started a large investigation into the gang of robbers. According to them the gang consisted of a leadership group of five to ten men (which included Mieremet) and a core group of twentyfive men who gave orders to a varying group of about a hundred men who would commit the robberies. These hundred men consisted of friends and associates. Authorities say the gang committed at least 41 armed robberies in The Netherlands and Belgium from 1982 to 1986. The robberies netted the gang an estimated 12,3 million guilders ($6 million.) By the mid to late 1980s the gang had fallen apart. Several of “The Thinkers” went into the drugtrade.</span><br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Mieremet and childhood pal Sam Klepper (also a leader of “The Thinkers”) joined the organization of crime boss Klaas Bruinsma. The two men led the gambling machines division and export of drugs for Bruinsma. They had a reputation as stone cold killers, which earned them the nickname “Spic and Span.” During 1990 Mieremet and Klepper were having problems with Yugoslavian boss Ljubinko Becirovic. Klepper and Mieremet were supposed to deliver a shipment of cocaine, the cocaine was never delivered. In the spring of 1990 Becirovic car was shot at when he drove past a cafe which was owned by the duo. Two days after the shooting Becirovic and his second in command <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/serbian-boss-sreten-jocic">Jotsa Jocic</a> had a meeting with Bruinsma and Etienne Urka. Becirovic gave Bruinsma a fine of 1 million guilders, if Bruinsma paid, all would be forgotten. Becirovic said Bruinsma was responsible for his men, Bruinsma denied this and said: “You guys fight it out with each other.” In October 1990 Becirovic was shot and died shortly there after in the hospital. The belief is the murder was committed by Mieremet and Klepper.</span><br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The violent Yugo mob was angry. That didn’t deter our dynamic duo from stealing a large load of hashish worth between 10 and 20 million guilders from Magdi Barsoum, the load was meant for the Yugos. A month and a half after the murder of Klaas Bruinsma Yugoslavian gangsters went looking for Mieremet and Klepper and took one associate hostage. The heat was becoming too much and so Mieremet and Klepper decided to do the smart thing: go to prison.</span><br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Both men filled their rental car with automatic weapons, handgrenades, ammo, tear gas and a tranquilizer gun. None of the weapons were ever used. They parked their car and called the police. They identified themselves as the owners and were arrested. After a short 11 months they were released from prison, and things had indeed cooled down. Jocic had fled The Netherlands.</span><br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">By the late 90s Klepper had become a prospect with the Hells Angels, and the men gained a friend in Willem Holleeder. Their war with the Yugos flared up again. The Yugos demanded that Mieremet and Klepper pay them their money with interest. They refused, and bodies started dropping. Associate Jan Femer was murdered on September 23, 2000 and a few weeks later Klepper was shot to death in front of his penthouse in Amsterdam-Buitenveldert. Mieremet allegedly avenged his partner in crime by killing Magdi Barsoum and later also his brother Mounier. However no person has been arrested in connection to these killings.</span><br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Through Willem Holleeder, Mieremet and Klepper got involved with property tycoon Willem Endstra. Endstra laundered their drug money and invested it in real estaste. Mieremet had invested millions of euros through Endstra. After all the killings Miermet decided to pay the Yugos their money. Spring 2001 Mieremet asked Holleeder to contact Jocic to start negotiations. Jocic wanted 10 million Deutsche Mark. Mieremet gave Holleeder 11,5 million guilders to hand over to Jocic. Mieremet later heard Holleeder had pocketed a couple of million. This caused a conflict between the two men. Mieremet was low on cash and demanded his invested 23 million euro from Endstra. The money had been invested in real estate and couldn’t just be paid out.</span><br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In February 2002 Mieremet was shot in front of his lawyer’s office. Mieremet was heavily wounded but survived and when the Dutch tax service wants him to pay 20 million guilders, he decides to talk to crime reporter John van de Heuvel. In the interview he says Endstra is the bank of the underworld and Holleeder his guardian. Mieremet even says he wants to talk to police and testify, even if he has to serve 10 to 15 years in prison. The government decided not to use him as a witness when Mieremet demanded his wife be left alone by the tax service and wouldn’t be prosecuted.</span><br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Mieremet lived in exile in Belgium and Thailand, where he had invested in real estate. He felt safe there. He wasn’t. On November 1, 2005 Mieremet was in his office when a man stepped in and asked him if he was John. When Mieremet confirmed, the man told him: “I have been ordered to kill you because of your behaviour.” Mieremet was shot in the head twice, he died on his way to the hospital.</span><br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sources</span>: De oorlog in de Amsterdamse onderwereld by Bart Middelburg and Paul Vugts. Op leven en dood by Gerlof Leistra.</span></p>
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