2024-02-27 18:13:08
Taghi was born in Tetouan, northern Morocco, in 1977 and his family moved to the Netherlands in 1980. He first came into conflict with the law as a teenager because of burglary and illegal possession of weapons and began dealing drugs. He later went into hiding and was only targeted by the police once more in 2013 – initially in Spain. He was arrested in Dubai in 2019.
A year-long trial followed, in which the verdicts once morest Taghi and 17 other defendants were handed down on Tuesday in a court near Amsterdam, known as the “bunker” because of the enormous security measures there. Taghi was sentenced to life imprisonment, his co-defendants were sentenced to prison terms of between nine months, 29 years and also life imprisonment for three defendants.
Process in a state of emergency
Prosecutors called Taghi and his co-defendants a “well-oiled killing machine.” The trial took place under enormous security precautions; masked police forces with automatic weapons were stationed around the “bunker” and helicopters and drones were deployed above the courthouse. Taghi is considered extremely dangerous; because of the murders or contract killings he was accused of, he was called the “Angel of Death” in the international press.
APA/AFP/Anp/Robin Utrecht helicopter over the “bunker”
“He spared no one”
“We convict all 17 defendants. Ridouan Taghi will receive life imprisonment,” said the judge, whose identity was not revealed for security reasons, at the conclusion of the proceedings on Tuesday. Taghi was the “undisputed leader” of a “murder organization.” “He decided who was killed – and he spared no one.” Taghi himself was not in the courtroom when the announcement was made. The judge pronounced the verdict behind a privacy screen so as not to be recognized.
Taghi was considered the head of one of the largest cocaine trafficking rings in Europe. Until his arrest in Dubai in 2019, he was the Netherlands’ most wanted criminal. Although he was imprisoned in a maximum security prison, he is said to have continued to run his cartel, known as the Mocro Mafia because of the Moroccan origins of many of its members, even following his arrest. Among other things, he was held responsible for three murders that were committed during the trial.
Lawyer and brother of key witness shot dead
However, these three murders were not tried in court; rather, there were six cases of murder, four attempted murders and other murder orders between 2015 and 2017. The gang’s victims are said to have been mainly suspected informants for the police. The trial once morest Taghi and his followers was made possible because a gang member turned himself in to the police and acted as the main prosecution witness.
picturedesk.com/AFP/Michel Van Bergen Investigations at the crime scene: In 2019, key witness B.’s lawyer was murdered in the Buitenveldert district of Amsterdam
After key witness Nabil B. turned to the police, a new wave of violence shook the Netherlands: his brother was killed in 2018, and his lawyer Derk Wiersum was shot in front of his house in 2019. Taghi’s cartel is also said to have ordered the murder of the well-known crime reporter Peter R. de Vries in 2021. De Vries was a confidant of key witness B., and his murder on the street caused horror in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. B. was sentenced to ten years in prison.
“Narco state” and comparisons to mafia murders
At the time there was talk of a “narco-state” (drug state), a “killing machine” and an “attack on the rule of law”. The press drew comparisons to Italy in the early 1990s, when the mafia there attacked the Italian investigative judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino killed with bombings.
The trial of Taghi and the Mocro Mafia lasted almost six years. The murders and attempted murders now being negotiated occurred between 2015 and 2017.
Leading figure in the international drug trade
The defendants remained largely silent during the trial. Most of them will probably appeal. For years, Taghi’s cartel was a leader in the international cocaine trade, with the Netherlands considered Europe’s drug smuggling hub.
In the trial, decrypted chat messages in particular incriminated the defendants. Taghi is said to have called the proceedings a “waste of time and money” since the verdict had already been determined. The verdict in the trial for the murder of the journalist de Vries is scheduled to come in June.
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#Netherlands #Life #Mocro #mafia
