Dutch police offer £1.6m reward for help finding cocaine kingpin on the run

Prosecutors from the Netherlands are offering a huge £1.6million (€2miillion) reward for information leading to the arrest of convicted cocaine kingpin Jos Leijdekkers. Authorities said on Monday they were offering the reward in a bid to catch one of Europe’s most wanted fugitives, who has been on the run for years. Leijdekkers is a Dutch national, but has been living in Sierra Leone for the past few years, according to the Dutch prosecution service. While his extradition from the African nation has been demanded by the Netherlands, Sierra Leone has refused to cooperate in handing him over, prompting the European Union to cut some aid sent to the country. The reward, the highest bounty ever offered by the Dutch authorities, is available to any person who provides the crucial tip leading to Leijdekkers' arrest, prosecutors said in a statement. Jos Leijdekkers was first seen in Freetown in 2022 (AFP/Getty)They added that Leijdekkers, who is known in the Netherlands as Bolle Jos or Chubby Jos, is a key player in international cocaine trafficking. According to police, Leijdekkers also goes by the name of Omar Sherrif in Sierra Leone.The 35-year-old was sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison by a Dutch court last year for smuggling more than 7 metric tons of cocaine and is also the subject of several ongoing police investigations in the Netherlands. In neighbouring Belgium a court sentenced him to 79 years in prison.Dutch authorities estimate Leijdekkers has made tens of millions of euros from cocaine smuggling. He is also suspected of money laundering and involvement in the use of extreme violence, they said.The reward has been increased from £167,000 (€200,000), as the Dutch authorities hope such a large sum will spur countries in Africa to share more information about Leijdekkers’ whereabouts. The previous sum was already the highest tip ever offered in Dutch history. While countries including Mexico and the United States more commonly offer large bounties, the Netherlands has traditionally been far more restrained. Leijdekkers is understood to have a child with President Julias Maada Bio's daughter, Agnes (AFP/Getty)Leijdekkers has reportedly been given a diplomatic passport to Sierra Leone in exchange for years of investment in the local economy. RTL correspondent Van Leeuwen said: “He began a relationship with Agnes Bio, the president’s daughter, with whom he now has a child.“According to eyewitnesses, the Dutchman threw money around Sierra Leone and invested in mines and real estate, among other things.”The Guardian reports at least 14 people have been killed inside Sierra Leone on Leijdekkers’ orders. High ranking police are even believed to have been murdered on his command, while some officers have fled the country in fear they will be next. One intelligence source speaking on the condition of anonymity told the publication: “If you get in his way, he wipes you out.” The first recorded sighting of Leijdekkers in west Africa was in October 2022, as he arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, in a six-vehicle convoy, which according to one Sierra Leonian police officer was “bigger than our president’s”.