Turkey extradites brother of fugitive drugs baron Bolle Jos

The older brother of fugitive drugs baron Jos “Bolle Jos” Leijdekkers has been extradited to the Netherlands by Turkey, in the latest move by Dutch prosecutors against the family of the country’s most wanted criminal.

Harry Leijdekkers, the kingpin’s 50-year-old brother, was arrested at Schiphol airport on June 2 after being flown in under military police escort, the public prosecution department (OM) said. He will be prosecuted for laundering large sums of money, gold and watches.

Messages intercepted from the encrypted phone service Sky ECC show he was involved in receiving and transferring millions of euros in cash, buying a large quantity of gold and passing on various watches, according to the OM, which says the assets came from crime.

Justice minister David van Weel, who confirmed the suspect’s identity, described the extradition on social media as “good news for the international fight against organised crime”, saying the case concerns the proceeds of large-scale international drug trafficking.

Family prosecutions

It is not the first time Harry Leijdekkers has been arrested. Police found firearms, a stun gun, a balaclava and handcuffs in his car when he was detained in the Netherlands in 2018, and he fled to Turkey shortly before being convicted, according to broadcaster NOS.

He was arrested in Turkey in 2023 over his ties to his younger brother’s criminal organisation, but was released about six months later along with other suspects.

Prosecutors have pursued other members of the family. The brothers’ father was acquitted of money laundering in May and allowed to keep watches, including a €110,000 Patek Philippe, which prosecutors said had been bought with his son’s drugs profits. The OM said in 2023 it would also prosecute Leijdekkers’ mother and sister for money laundering.

Sierra Leone stalemate
Jos Leijdekkers has been sentenced in absentia to 24 years in jail for large-scale cocaine smuggling and ordering a murder, and was last year ordered to repay €96 million to the Dutch state.

He remains in Sierra Leone, where Dutch special forces twice called off attempts to seize him at sea in May. The government is now pushing the EU to cut development aid to the country, and a report last week named his network as the likely coordinator of the record 30-tonne cocaine seizure off West Africa.