The Netherlands' most feared drug lord was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for a series of murders committed between 2015 and 2017, the court announced, in a large-scale trial.
“We condemn all suspects.
Ridouan Taghi gets life in prison
,” said the judge (unidentified for security reasons) of a high-security Amsterdam court, who also sentenced 16 other cartel members.
Taghi was accused of pulling the strings of the drug cartel nicknamed the “Mocro Maffia”, an organization described as a
“well-oiled killing machine”
.
He and his co-defendants were on trial for six murders and four attempted murders.
Sixteen other suspects were sentenced to sentences ranging from life to one year and nine months in prison.
The verdict was delivered almost six years after the start of this trial, in a highly secure court, commonly known as
"The Bunker"
, on the outskirts of Amsterdam.
Large-scale trial
Ridouan Taghi, 46, born in Morocco and raised in the Netherlands, is considered the mastermind of an international organized crime organization, whose roots are partly in the Benelux, and commonly called
"Mocro Maffia"
because of the Moroccan origins of several of its members.
The term actually refers to a group of criminal groups considered to be one of the largest distributors of cocaine in the Netherlands.
Taghi was arrested in Dubai in 2019 and held in a super-secure Dutch prison.
Despite this, he continued to lead his gang from the inside by transmitting messages to his accomplices outside, according to the prosecution.
Due to its scale, the trial, called
“Marengo”
, is unprecedented in the Netherlands, according to observers.
The army was mobilized to secure the area around the court during hearings.
Prosecutors and judges go there in armored cars.
A Dutch streaming platform even made a series called
“Mocro Maffia”
.
The crimes were carried out between 2015 and 2017, mainly targeting individuals suspected by the gang of having become police informants.
The 2017 murder in Utrecht (center) of a man called Hakim Changachi is considered by the prosecution to be a mistake.
Shortly afterwards, one of the alleged gang members, identified as
"Nabil B"
., went to the police and agreed to become a prosecution witness.
Wave of violence
A new wave of violence followed with murders that shocked the country.
Three people from Nabil B.'s entourage were killed: his brother in 2018, his lawyer Derk Wiersum in 2019 and a renowned journalist, Peter R. de Vries, considered his confidant, in 2021. Ridouan Taghi has always denied the accusations, claiming that the money spent on this
“sham trial”
should instead have been invested in education, police and health, the Het Parool newspaper reported.
None of the suspects made a statement during the trial, which was slowed down by several twists and turns.
Then Taghi's lawyer, Inez Weski was arrested in April 2023 on suspicion of helping her client communicate with the outside world.
New lawyers subsequently appointed resigned, saying they had not had enough time to prepare.
Taghi then decided to ensure his own defense.
The prosecution's file consisted of more than 800 pages, including evidence brought by Nabil B. and conversations from encrypted telephones.