The Journal. - A Cocaine Kingpin and the Rise of Drug Violence in Europe

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

Organized crime used to be considered a remote threat in much of Western Europe, but ruthless violence by criminal gangs is now rattling the peace in some of the world’s safest societies. WSJ’s Sune Rasmussen explores the rise of one drug kingpin and how his brutal tactics have spread around the continent.  Further Reading: - Violent Drug Gangs Bring Mayhem to Western Europe  Further Listening: - The Push to Test Drugs for Fentanyl  - Afghanistan's Desperation Economy  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2021, news about a prominent Dutch journalist named Peter De Vries sent shockwaves across Europe. Peter De Vries was probably the most famous crime reporter in the Netherlands. He was famous for taking on these unsolved murder cases and crimes that the police had kind of given up on and then solving them in his work. One evening in July of 2021, as De Vries was leaving a television studio where he had been recording, a man sidled up to him from behind and shot him point black in the street. Good evening. Extra news from Peter R. de Vries.

A crime reporter well known for exposing the Dutch underworld... has become the subject rather than the documenter of a crime scene. The Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries has died. The 64-year-old journalist was known for investigating organised crime. And who did it wind up was responsible for his murder? Most people assume that the murder was linked to a very famous Dutch Moroccan drug dealer, drug lord. That drug lord is Ridwan Taghi, the most wanted man in the Netherlands. Taghi is probably the most notorious Dutch drug trafficker.

His gang, the Moroccan Mafia, is probably the most powerful criminal organization in the Netherlands. De Vries had been helping law enforcement fill the case against Taghi. And while Taghi was never charged with De Vries' murder and has denied involvement, prosecutors believe it was retribution for the journalist's work. Today, Taghi is a symbol for a surge in violent gang crime across Europe.

And it's a wave of violence where historically safe countries like the Netherlands have seen these incidents of brutal violence in the streets and broad daylight that also targets civilians. This is something that really concerns a lot of European citizens and certainly concerns European law enforcement agencies. And no one embodies this trend more, and no one is more famous as part of this trend than Ridwan Tagi. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Wednesday, September 18th. Coming up on the show, a notorious cocaine kingpin and the rise of gang violence in Europe. This episode is brought to you by Nespresso. Elevate your morning coffee ritual. From the first sip of coffee in the morning to the on-the-go cup, make every morning unforgettable with Nespresso. Discover a world of possibilities, with or without milk. Visit nespresso.ca to learn more,

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Savings may vary. Eligibility and member terms apply. Western Europe has long had a reputation for being more tolerant of drugs like marijuana, especially in the Netherlands, where the laws around drug use have historically been very relaxed. Here's our colleague, Suna Rasmussen. Amsterdam is the decade that's been famous as this place in Europe, like a little tranquil, cozy city in Europe where you could smoke cannabis in coffee shops, quote unquote coffee shops, legally. And then you could go for a walk along the canal, you could sit down and eat the Dutch

pancakes and have a great time and not really worry about law enforcement. And for many, many years, this was sort of the Netherlands' primary claim to fame almost internationally. And that was the result of some certain tolerance for what the Dutch government has considered soft drugs. These drug laws allow the recreational use of cannabis, but not its production, which means that these coffee shops often get their drugs from unofficial sources.

These coffee shops, in order to supply customers legally with cannabis, they had to source their cannabis illegally from mafia groups, from gangsters, who would also readily sell them all kinds of other drugs. They didn't distinguish between soft and hard drugs in the same way that the Dutch government, Dutch law enforcement did. distinguish between soft and hard drugs in the same way that the Dutch government, Dutch law enforcement did. And gradually over the years, the recreational drug use in the Netherlands blew the door open for this much larger drug industry to take over the Netherlands. Things came to a head in 2008. The global drug trade was shifting, and unprecedented volumes of cocaine began flooding European

markets. Drug gangs in South America, which had previously focused mostly on North America, started sending more drugs into Europe. One of the reasons is that American law enforcement cracked down on drugs both inside the US, but also pushed Colombia to crack down on drugs, both inside the US, but also pushed Colombia to crack down on cocaine production there. Colombian drug gangs also started experimenting with sending drugs to West Africa, that way over,

and then into Europe. And then at the same time, cocaine consumption in the US was waning, while in Europe it was increasing. As the shift took place, in the US was waning, while in Europe it was increasing. As the shift took place, Ridwan Taghi, a mafia boss and drug trafficker, found himself well positioned to exploit this growing market.

The Netherlands is home to Europe's biggest port in Rotterdam, where a lot of these drugs come through. There's so much trade going through Rotterdam that it's impossible to check all the containers to go through. So it's a very opportune port for drug smugglers to send drugs through. So if you control the drug market or a sizable portion of the drug market in the Netherlands, you have a very good foothold in the European drug market.

Rotterdam port authorities say that they're scanning more containers and seizing more drugs than in previous years. So what's Taghi's background? Like, what's his origin story? He was born in Morocco but moved to the Netherlands as a child. And many of these drug gangs in Europe are sort of organized in sort of original nationality of the people involved, like either where they came from or where their parents came from. You've got the Albanian mafia in Albania, you have Moroccan mafia, or you have the more ethnically white criminal gangs like biker gangs like Hills Angels or Bandidos. Taghi belongs to the Moroccan mafia and he kind of made his way in the criminal underground and made a lot of his wealth first by smuggling cannabis from Morocco into Europe. When cocaine started flowing more heavily into Europe in the 2000s, Taghi expanded his

operation. Soon he became known as one of the most powerful drug lords on the continent. Dutch news reports said that at one point, his gang imported about one-third of all cocaine going into the Netherlands. How did he build up this reputation? How did he become the most famous drug trafficker in that area? Through sheer brutality and willingness to commit violence. Taghi grew his operation quickly, in part by targeting not just other gangs, but civilians.

According to Dutch officials, Taghi is tied to murders that go back almost a decade. Dutch prosecutors say that the murder spree that began back in 2015 with the murder, that they say he ordered of the owner of a spy shop who was selling surveillance equipment legally. The spy shop owner turned over his transaction records to the police. So that was the first murder attributed to him according to Dutch prosecutors. And on his BlackBerry phone, police found a video of a woman who had been reported missing being tortured.

Oh my God. And she is assumed to be dead. She hasn't been found since she disappeared. These investigations prompted Taghi to switch things up. In 2016, he left the Netherlands and moved to the Middle East, running his European operations from Morocco and Dubai. For many of these people, it's much safer to be in Dubai. For many years, Dubai has been this safe haven for criminals.

And that worked for Taghi for a long time. He continued to direct his operations in Europe, smuggle drugs from Morocco, but also from elsewhere, into the Netherlands, and also, according to Dutch prosecutors, direct violence in the streets of the Netherlands from his perch in Dubai. Officials had been trying to catch Taghi for years,

and they had a 100,000 euro bounty on him, a record at the time. Then, in 2017, there was a major break in the case. According to Dutch prosecutors, Taghi had ordered a murder which went wrong. The hitman that had been contracted to this killing apparently got the wrong guy. And the middleman who had allegedly arranged the killing on behalf of Taghi turned himself in to police and then he offered to testify against Taghi.

That middleman is referred to in court documents as Nabil B. And his testimony would become crucial in the case against Taghi. In 2019, after several international arrest warrants had been issued for Taghi, Dubai police arrested him. Taghi was charged with involvement in six murders and over a dozen attempted murders and other violent plots. Taghi was flown back to the Netherlands, and Dutch authorities finally had their hands on the country's most wanted man.

But Taghi's arrest was only half the job. He still had to be tried in court. And his trial was set to be one of the biggest murder cases in Dutch history. That's next. Looking for a path to accelerate your career? Clear direction for next-level success? In a place that is innovative and practical, a path to stay current and connected to industry, a place where you can be yourself, you will find it at York University School of Continuing Studies where we offer career programs purpose-built for you.

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That's the powerful backing of American Express. Learn more at mx.ca slash ymx. Terms apply. After years of evading Dutch authorities, Ridwan Taghi was behind bars awaiting trial. But he continued to be a threat. Even after he had been arrested, Taghi was still considered so dangerous that the trial against him took place in this, they call it the bunker outside of Amsterdam.

It's like a warehouse turned into like a military fortress, basically, for the most hardened and dangerous criminals. During court meetings, this building was guarded by hundreds of special forces, all wearing masks to hide their identity. There were drones overhead because Dutch authorities had gotten wind that perhaps Taghi's people would try and break him out of prison by helicopter. Taghi's two first lawyers were also arrested for passing

notes from him to his people outside and after authorities got a hand on these notes they suspected that Taghi might also try and orchestrate a prison break by either capturing prison staff and holding them hostage and sort of forcing a prisoner release that way or that he that people would try and kidnap the Crown Princess of the Netherlands. And they also got a wind of threats against the Prime Minister at the time, Mark Rutte. Out of fear, the Prime Minister

stopped riding his bicycle to work, and the Dutch Crown Princess left her school in Amsterdam to live in Spain. Through his lawyer, Taghi denied involvement in any plot against the Princess or the Prime Minister. It is wild. It sounds like a movie. It sounds like you're describing the plot of a movie. I think that's also why it shocked the Netherlands so much. You don't expect a peaceful place like the Netherlands to be home to this kind of violence. the Netherlands to be home to this kind of violence.

Even from prison, Taghi had a far reach. At the trial, one of the prosecution's star witnesses was Nabil B, the middleman who gave Taghi up to the police back in 2017. And as the case progressed, several people linked to Nabil were murdered. Three people linked to the star witness, Nabil B B were killed in broad daylight in the streets of Amsterdam. The witness's brother, his lawyer, and then Peter De Vries, the crime reporter who we talked about initially. Some of De Vries' colleagues and friends actually warned him against joining Nabil B's legal team, the legal team against Taghi for the obvious dangers inherent in that job.

But regardless, he still joined the legal team. And so those three people were all killed. And that really sent shockwaves through the Netherlands. And he has not been charged for this. Ridwan Taghi is important to add. But everyone in the Netherlands assumed that he or his people were behind it because these were targeting people that were connected to the star witness against Taghi. Right. The links were a little too clear for people to think it could be otherwise. Yes, and it has certainly bolstered his reputation as the most notorious drug criminal in the country. In a written statement in 2022, Taghi denied involvement in all three murders. Taghi's trial lasted six years. In February, he was finally convicted and sentenced to life in

prison. Now Ridouan Taghi, one of the Netherlands most wanted criminals, has been sentenced to life in prison. The case against the drug cartel leader and 16 other members of his crime gang related to several murders. He was sentenced to life for five murders that he was on trial for. And he has appealed the case. So now we're going through appeal proceedings. But he's still in prison? He's still in a maximum security prison in the Netherlands. And so now I think people are waiting to see what happens to Taghi,

whether the threat that Taghi poses to Dutch society can be curbed while he is in prison. And then I think we're also waiting to see how, you know, cutting their head off this powerful criminal gang will affect the drug trade in the Netherlands. Taghi is the most notorious gang leader in Europe. But his brutal methods are now cropping up all over the continent. So in Europe, this kind of violence was often associated with Italy, which still has some issues,

but not as bad, obviously, as it was in the 90s. But over the past decade, especially the past four or five years really, countries like Sweden are experiencing massive problems with gang violence. A surge in gun crime here and nationwide has made Sweden one of the worst countries in Europe for gangland shootings. Military involvement in crime fighting is a highly unusual step for Sweden, a sign of how challenging things have become for regular law enforcement.

Sweden now has the highest gun murder rate per capita of any country in Europe. It got so bad last year that the military was sent in to assist the police in the fight against these violent gangs. Sweden has said it's suffering from unprecedented levels of gang violence and last year introduced tougher legislation to fight it. Other European countries have experienced this wave as well. The French Interior Minister has said the greatest danger to French national unity is drug trafficking. And in Denmark, the government has proposed harsher punishments for gang-related violence. How is the European Union responding to this?

I honestly think they're sort of scrambling a little bit to respond. I know the European Union has sought to increase cooperation between European member states, especially those that have important ports. But as long as these illicit drugs keep flooding the continent, I think it's very difficult to make a meaningful dent in the violence that comes associated with it. Is there a chance that this is going to erupt into a larger kind of European drug war? I do think that there is a risk that drug crime in Europe can become more internationalized than it already is.

We're already seeing this. Like in Dubai, you have this sort of coalescence of gang leaders from all over Europe, the Moroccan mafia, the Albanian mafia, the Irish Kinnerhan family. They are already in an alliance and they are already nurturing a relationship in Dubai. And that's something relatively new, and that is worrying, I think. And because all these criminal groups on different continents are working closer together than ever before, I think that also plays into this growing violence,

because a lot of the crime bosses no longer sit in the countries where their gangs operate. They sit abroad. They sit in Dubai. They sit in Colombia. They sit in Turkey. So they're not actually sort of daily face

to face with the violence that their people unleash in the streets. In recent years, the UAE has taken steps to help European authorities apprehend these gang leaders. What is the takeaway here? Like, what does this story tell us? It's very, very difficult to win the war on drugs unless you meaningfully decrease demand in the Western world, as long as there is a seemingly insatiable demand for drugs, whether it's synthetic drugs or cocaine or cannabis or opiates, it's going to be very difficult to stem

the global drug trade and the violence that comes with it. And I think the West has for so many years waged the war on drugs with very little to show for it. So, yeah, I think if there is a big takeaway here, it is that if you suppress the drug trade in one place, it's going to pop up somewhere else. And as long as there is a seemingly insatiable demand for drugs, then drugs will continue to flow. That's all for today, Wednesday, September 18th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.