It was July 15, 2021, in Amsterdam (Netherlands). Investigative journalist Peter de Vries was murdered in the middle of the street, in retaliation for his investigations into the drug mafia. His killers are now on trial in the Dutch capital. The trial is being held under very high surveillance. The family’s lawyer, Peter Schouten, assures that he “face [lui]-even on the list of people to be murdered”. Behind these crimes, the Mocro Maffia, an organization run by Moroccan families in the Netherlands.
They use the port of Rotterdam (Netherlands) to import drugs into Europe. Sander Janssen, a lawyer, has been defending rival gangs for a decade. He claims to have never seen such an outburst of violence. “For the first time, they crossed barriers, killed lawyers, journalists, killed family members of witnesses. It’s something I’ve never seen before, in the Netherlands“, he reports.
At the head of this Mocro Mafia, Ridouan Taghi, arrested in Dubai in 2019. He continues to pull the strings behind the walls of his Dutch prison. To negotiate his release, he now attacks leading figures, such as Princess Amalia of the Netherlands. Even the Prime Minister is in the sights, and had to give up bike rides. In Belgium, the other entry point for drugs in Europe is the Minister of Justice, Vincent van Quickenborbe, who narrowly escaped an attempted kidnapping.
At the Brussels courthouse (Belgium), Michel Claise, an investigating judge specializing in crime, has been warning for years about the growing power of traffickers. “[La situation] has eluded us for years“, he assures, bitter. Faced with the billions of euros of the mafia, the means of the police and justice seem indeed derisory.