He is considered the biggest drug trafficker in Europe. Ridouan Taghi, arrested in Dubai in 2019, is suspected of having killed or caused to be killed several people, including rivals but also journalists and lawyers. The trial of this 45-year-old man and 16 accomplices is currently being held, under very high surveillance.
He is a man who terrorizes the Netherlands and not only. Ridouan Taghi, his name is not known to the general public, but he is considered by some to be the biggest drug trafficker in Europe. This Dutchman of Moroccan origin is at the head of the powerful organization “Mocro Maffia”, which reigns over the trafficking of cocaine from the Belgian port of Antwerp.
He is public enemy number one in the Netherlands and is said to be one of the continent’s most dangerous criminals. Why? He is suspected of having killed or caused to be killed many people, probably dozens. In addition, threats of kidnapping or violence against public figures raise fears of the worst.
Threats taken seriously
The Dutch Prime Minister has swapped his bicycle for an armored car surrounded by a strong police guard. The Crown Princess, Amalia, who went to the University of Amsterdam every day, can only with difficulty leave the royal palace. A radical change for this 18-year-old young woman who was studying like everyone else.
Threats are therefore taken very seriously, as this man is capable of anything. For example, one of his men, repentant, had denounced him to the police. In response, Ridouan Taghi allegedly had his brother and his lawyer killed in front of the courthouse. It was then an investigative journalist, who had worked on this mafia and who was on the trafficker’s blacklist, who was murdered.
Is it also he who is behind the attempted kidnapping of the Belgian Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne, a little over a month ago? The investigation will have to determine it but the minister, engaged in the fight against drug trafficking, had mentioned the “drug mafia”.
A trial under close surveillance
However, Ridouan Taghi was arrested in his villa in Dubai in 2019, but it is from his prison that he would continue to give orders. His lawyers have been suspected of passing on his messages and demands when they go to see him in the most secure prison in the country.
He is currently on trial with 16 accomplices in the Netherlands. This trial is under very high surveillance, for fear of reprisals. The risks are considered so high that the lawyers for the civil parties plead with a mask on their face to guarantee their anonymity.
Born in Morocco, this man is 45 years old and arrived in Utrecht (Netherlands) with his family when he was only two years old. Yet he was a good student, he even went so far as to study the science of education at university, while selling a few drugs on the side. His grandfather was already a trafficker and brought cannabis from Morocco.
