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Record reward offered for capture of fugitive cocaine kingpin dubbed "Chubby Jos"
CBS News • • world
Key Points:
- Dutch authorities have announced a record reward of 2 million euros for information leading to the arrest of Jos Leijdekkers, a major European drug trafficker currently believed to be hiding in Sierra Leone.
- Leijdekkers, nicknamed "Bolle Jos," was sentenced in absentia in the Netherlands to 24 years in prison for trafficking nearly 7,000 kilos of cocaine, armed robbery, and ordering a murder, and he faces a 79-year sentence in Belgium.
- Dutch officials are certain Leijdekkers is in Sierra Leone, where he has reportedly established connections with high-level political figures, including President Julius Maada Bio and his family.
- Leijdekkers is suspected of involvement in the disappearance and likely death of Naima Jillal, a woman who went missing in Amsterdam in 2019, with Europol citing intercepted communications linking him to the case.
- Dutch prosecutors emphasize the arrest of Leijdekkers as their highest priority and assure that any information provided will be kept confidential.
