Dutch drugs baron “Bolle Jos” is suspected of being behind a record shipment of more than 40 tonnes of cocaine that was intercepted by Spanish police off the coast of Africa.

Members of the Guardia Civil boarded the ship on Friday and overpowered the crew as it sailed from Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, towards its official destination of Benghazi in Libya. The vessel was sailing under the flag of Comoros.

The Telegraaf reported that several Dutch nationals had been detained on board the ship, which is tied up in port in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Officials are investigating if there is a link to the Netherlands’ most wanted drugs criminal.

Jos Leijdekkers, known as Bolle (“chunky”) Jos, originally from Breda, is believed to be running his drugs empire from Sierra Leone with the help of local authorities.

Sierra Leone has no extradition treaty with the Netherlands and the 34-year-old Leijdekkers is reportedly engaged to the daughter of the country’s president, Julius Maada Bio.

Last year he was ordered to pay €96 million to the Dutch state in the country’s biggest ever proceeds of crime case, after being jailed for 24 years in his absence the previous year.

He has also been sentenced to seven years in jail in Belgium after a court in Antwerp found him guilty of importing at least 100kg of cocaine through the North Sea port.

His lawyer, Guy Weski dismissed the reports that Leijdekkers was involved in the haul as “rumours”. “It’s very much beginning to look as if every crime that’s committed on the African continent or in its waters is associated with my client,” he said.