Police in the Netherlands have raised the level of protection around Prime Minister Mark Rutte in recent weeks, fearing that he may be the target of an attack by the Moroccan drug mafia, known as the “Mocro-Maffia”. The security services have reportedly received detailed information about a planned attack or kidnapping against the Prime Minister. “They are taken very seriously”, several Dutch media reported. This gang, mainly of Moroccan origin, is extremely dangerous.
After having started in the traffic of hashish from Morocco, the “Mocro-Maffia” became a key player in the transport and sale of cocaine in the Netherlands, then in Belgium in the 2010s. This criminal group, responsible for a dozen murders of politicians and journalists, has for motto “Wie praat, die gaat” (“He who speaks shall die”).
“The Prime Minister was followed by suspected lookouts from a notorious drug trafficking gang dubbed the ‘Mocro-Maffia'”
De Telegraaf, Dutch dailyAFP
The threat against Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte follows a government pledge to crack down on organized crime following the July 2021 murder of an investigative journalist. Peter R. de Vries died on July 15 after being targeted on 6 in a busy street in central Amsterdam. He had been shot five times in the head and chest. Since then, the protection of lawyers, magistrates, journalists, civil servants and their families has been strengthened.
His assault and death reignited the debate on the place of organized crime and drug trafficking in Dutch society, as the country now finds itself confronted with powerful and dangerous drug-related crime. A subject that has remained under the radar for too long, while the Netherlands is a hub for hard drugs destined for all of Europe, in particular because of the country’s central position and the importance of the port of Rotterdam.
In 2019, the “Mocro-Maffia” was involved in the assassination of Derk Wiersum, an Amsterdam lawyer specializing in organized crime and drug trafficking networks. His client Nabil B., a repentant whose brother was assassinated in 2018, had given the police key information on the head of the Moroccan mafia, Ridouan Taghi, in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Detained in a high security prison in the south of the Netherlands, Ridouan Taghi is claimed by the Moroccan courts. He would have ordered several assassinations in Morocco, in particular that of Mustapha El Fechtali, owner of the café Cream in Marrakech. On November 2, 2017, Taghi sent two killers there to shoot him. The head of the “Mocro-Maffia” is also suspected of being linked to the murder of the son of a Moroccan judge. Unlike his predecessors, he has the most structured organization, with hired killers all over the world.
A trial of 17 members of the “Mocro-Maffia” has been taking place since September 20, 2021 in an ultra secure enclosure in the suburbs of Amsterdam, but for a few thousand euros, others would already be ready to take over.