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The Netherlands is trying to build a coalition of West African countries to pressure Sierra Leone into handing over fugitive drugs baron Jos “Bolle Jos” Leijdekkers, justice minister David van Weel said after a visit to Ghana, in an interview with the Telegraaf.
Van Weel told the paper that Sierra Leone’s neighbours, including Liberia and Ghana, are increasingly frustrated at the shelter the country is giving Leijdekkers, whose network operates across the region.
“We are not ruling out any option,” he said, hinting at measures he could not discuss publicly. The Netherlands also wants to set up a permanent secretariat in West Africa to tackle drug smuggling networks, he said.
Sierra Leone’s justice minister, Alpha Sesay, attended the talks on his own initiative and has written to Van Weel proposing to work towards a solution – a sign, according to the Dutch minister, that the pressure is being felt, though he said he saw more willingness to talk than to act.
Leijdekkers, 34, is the Netherlands’ most wanted criminal, sentenced in absentia to prison terms in the Netherlands and Belgium totalling around 80 years for large-scale cocaine smuggling and ordering a murder. He has also been ordered to repay €96 million to the Dutch state.
He is reported to be living under presidential protection in Sierra Leone, where he is said to have a child with the daughter of president Julius Maada Bio. His network has been linked to a record cocaine seizure off the Canary Islands in May, one of the largest single hauls in history.
The regional approach follows a series of failed attempts to get him. Dutch special forces twice came close to arresting him at sea before the operations were called off, and a Dutch push to cut EU development aid to Sierra Leone has so far failed to win support from other member states, ministers told MPs earlier this month.
Prosecutors have meanwhile targeted his family, with his brother extradited from Turkey in June on money laundering charges.
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