Over 221 million euros in criminal assets. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) demands millions from the fugitive Jos Leijdekkers. The amount is based on expenditures related to fourteen drug transports totaling 14 thousand kilograms of cocaine in less than a year. For six of these transports, an armed robbery in Finland, and commissioning a liquidation, he was sentenced last year to 24 years in prison. The OM announced on Monday at the Rotterdam court that it intends to recover this criminal asset from him.
The 33-year-old Leijdekkers has been fugitive for some time and is wanted internationally. Therefore, the OM mentions his full name. He is considered one of the main players in the international cocaine trade. In the confiscation case, in addition to the six transports from the verdict, eight other transports involving Leijdekkers are also included. These are shipments seized between December 2019 and August 2020 in Rotterdam, Antwerp, France, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Uruguay.
Staggering amounts
In the Rotterdam courtroom, the prosecutors from the National Public Prosecutors Office outlined Leijdekkers expenditures, which included staggering amounts for the purchase of cocaine, transportation, and payment for various services. To calculate the so-called illegally obtained benefits, all costs have been mapped out. It has been calculated what the expenditure per transport was for Leijdekkers, based on the wholesale prices of the drugs at that time. In less than a year, this amounts to 114 million euros for these fourteen transports.
An amount of over € 114,000,000 is, to be fair, a substantial amount. For most people, it is incomprehensible that this amount can be invested by one person in batches of cocaine in one year. It is essentially an amount of a scale that only occurs in business. But that is also exactly what the international cocaine trade is, namely big business where exorbitant amounts circulate, with the important difference that it now concerns a criminal and harmful product from which criminal profits are made. And because those profits have a criminal origin, we seize them.
However, the prosecutors also point out that the amount is on the low side, in favor of Leijdekkers. The calculation was based on a fair distribution among the various participants in the transports, who communicated in encrypted app groups. It is reasonable to assume that Leijdekkers, as the organizer, would have claimed a larger share of the profits. Additionally, the mentioned amount focuses on a series of transports in a specific period, which only represents a small part of the suspected total trade.
Purchase of 975 kilograms of gold
The available information about Leijdekkers personal spending patterns reveals some insights. Encrypted communications indicate that Leijdekkers buys hundreds of kilograms of gold. He inquires about the price per kilogram of Swiss gold when buying 1000 kilograms. He then states that he purchased this amount for 1000 euros below market price. A photo is sent showing 4 containers, each containing 25 gold-colored bars. Other chats, with subject names like Drop off 9.5 million euros and Gold, show extensive conversations about the amount of gold delivered or yet to be delivered, and where it should go. In total, Leijdekkers purchased 975 kilograms of gold for € 47,033,062 over a period of less than six months.
Expensive watches
Additionally, there is visibility into the purchase of real estate, such as a hotel in Turkey or apartments in Dubai. Since there are no known legal incomes from Leijdekkers, it is reasonable to assume that his accounts have been funded with cash. Then there are luxury goods that have likely been gifted to family members, such as two Bentleys, designer bags, jewelry, and watches. There are watches from Rolex, Richard Mille, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet, the most expensive watch brands in the world.
First step
In total, the OM concludes that the illegally obtained assets amount to 221,675,808 euros. This is the wealth that has no legal origin. The total expenditures for the cocaine trade can be established at a minimum of € 114,224,813. The prosecutors:
With this confiscation case, the financial investigation has not come to an end, but has actually just begun regarding the financial side of the case. It is important to establish how much a suspect or convicted person has earned from his criminal offenses, but that alone does not affect the seizure of his criminal assets. This is therefore only a first step towards uncovering Leijdekkers assets. Uncovering the assets is, of course, not an easy process, but the first indications are already evident from the file, and there is increasing insight in that area and also an increasing willingness from other countries to cooperate in that process.
