French Customs Seize Multi-Ton Cocaine Shipment Reportedly Linked to ‘Bolle Jos’
Packages displayed after a French customs seizure in Dunkirk. The image was published with reporting on the interception; the precise quantity represented in the photograph has not been independently confirmed.
DUNKIRK, France — French customs authorities have intercepted a major cocaine shipment aboard a cargo vessel traveling from Ghana toward Antwerp, according to reporting by NL Times. The seizure reportedly involved several thousand kilograms of cocaine and is believed by investigators to be connected in part to the organization of fugitive Dutch drug trafficker Jos Leijdekkers, widely known as “Bolle Jos."
The seizure demonstrates the continued use of commercial shipping routes to move cocaine from West Africa into Europe.
#DrugTrafficking | #CocaineShipment
'Bolle' Jos Leijdekkers and the Broader Developments in Dutch and International Organized Crime
European and African authorities have been locked in a high-stakes game for Jos Leijdekkers, the Dutch-born cocaine trafficker widely known by the alias Bolle Jos. Convicted in absentia and on Europol’s most-wanted list, Leijdekkers remains a fugitive — eluding capture and drawing fresh international scrutiny as law enforcement ramps up efforts to bring him to justice.
The Netherlands has formally requested Leijdekkers’ arrest and extradition from Sierra Leone, but progress has been slow and complicated by politics and legal barriers.
While Leijdekkers remains free, remnants of the Dutch organized crime underworld continue to make headlines. Ridouan Taghi, once the Netherlands’ most-wanted fugitive linked to the notorious Mocro Maffia network, was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison after a landmark trial known as the Marengo case.