“We condemn all suspects.
Ridouan Taghi gets life in prison,” declared the judge of an Amsterdam court, at the end of a trial of unprecedented scale.
The Netherlands' most feared drug lord was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for a series of murders by his gang that shocked the country.
Ridouan Taghi, 46, born in Morocco and raised in the Netherlands, is considered the mastermind of the drug cartel nicknamed the “Mocro Maffia”, an organization described by the prosecution as a “well-oiled killing machine”.
According to justice, Ridouan Taghi, who always denied the accusations, was the “undisputed leader” of a “murderous organization” and resorted to “extreme violence to frighten people”.
“He decided who would be killed and he spared no one,” said the judge, who was not identified for security reasons.
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Considered by observers to be unprecedented in the Netherlands in terms of its scale, the trial, which lasted almost six years, took place under high security.
At least three people linked to the case have been murdered.
Sixteen other suspects were sentenced to sentences ranging from life to one year and nine months in prison.
“We can be proud of the rule of law, because despite everything that has happened, despite the fact that this case lasted six years, there are today 17 sentences,” declared to AFP a member of the prosecution.
The lawyer for one of the suspects, Said R., said his client would appeal his life sentence.
The army mobilized for the trial
Once the Netherlands' most wanted fugitive, Ridouan Taghi was arrested in Dubai in 2019 and held in an ultra-secure Dutch prison.
Despite this, he continued to lead his gang by transmitting messages to his accomplices outside, according to the prosecution.
Heavily armed law enforcement officers patrolled the court, commonly known as “The Bunker,” on the outskirts of Amsterdam on Tuesday.
During the trial, the army was mobilized to secure the premises and the prosecutors and judges, unidentified, went there in armored cars.
The suspects were on trial for crimes committed between 2015 and 2017, mainly targeting individuals suspected by the gang of having become police informants.
The three assassinations that occurred during the trial are the subject of separate legal proceedings.
The defendants were convicted of six murders, four attempted murders and planning other liquidations.
The assassination of one of the victims, Hakim Changachi, committed in 2017 in Utrecht (center), is considered an error.
Shortly afterwards, Nabil B., then a member of the gang, went to the police and agreed to become a witness for the prosecution.
A new wave of violence then follows.
Three people linked to Nabil B. were killed: his brother in 2018, his lawyer in 2019 and a renowned journalist, Peter R. de Vries, considered his confidant, in 2021.
The court noted on Tuesday that no victim's relative dared to testify during the trial about the suffering inflicted on them.
One of the largest cocaine distributors in the Netherlands
Ridouan Taghi is considered the mastermind of an international organized crime organization, whose roots are partly in the Benelux, and commonly called “Mocro Maffia” due to 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.
None of the suspects made a statement during the trial, which was slowed down by several twists and turns.
Then lawyer for Ridouan Taghi, Inez Weski was arrested in April 2023, suspected of having helped her client communicate with the outside world.
New lawyers have resigned, saying they were not given enough time to prepare.
The alleged drug lord then decided to take on his own defense.
The prosecution's file consisted of more than 800 pages with evidence brought by Nabil B. - who received ten years in prison - and conversations from encrypted telephones.
“When we read the messages in the file, we find ourselves in a world where human life has no value,” the judge said.