Sierra Leone Telegraph: 25 January 2025:
Sierra Leone’s role in international cocaine trafficking is once again under scrutiny, after reports revealed yesterday that one of Europe’s most-wanted fugitives, has been living in Sierra Leone with the knowledge of President Bio, for about six months.
According to Reuters report, Jos Leijdekkers, 33, was sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison on 25 June last year by a Rotterdam court for smuggling more than seven tonnes of cocaine.
Leijdekker is said to be in a relationship with the daughter of the President of Sierra Leone – Julius Maada Bio, prompting questions about the President’s knowledge of Leijdekker, and the Bio family’s role in harbouring a convicted international drug trafficker.
Two weeks ago, the West African government of Guinea expelled the Sierra Leonean Ambassador to Guinea after a large haul of Cocaine was intercepted by Guinean police being transported in the Sierra Leone Ambassador’s vehicle.
Since coming to power in 2018, there have been several allegations against the President’s family abusing the country’s key infrastructures and institutions, such as the seaport for the trafficking of drugs. But these allegations have been denied by the government.
The latest report about President Bio’s family connection with the European fugitive convict – Jos Leijdekkers, marks a significant change in the global perception and image of Sierra Leone.
Reuters report says that the convicted cocaine smuggler has found refuge and high-level protection in Sierra Leone, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter as well as photos and video footage seen by Reuters.
“The images and accounts shed fresh light on the role of the West African nation, which international law enforcement officials say is a transshipment point for large volumes of Latin American cocaine headed to Europe,” says Reuters.
A spokesperson for the Dutch prosecutors’ office told Reuters on Friday in response to questions about his whereabouts that he has been living in Sierra Leone for at least six months. Two of the sources with knowledge of the situation said Leijdekkers had been in Sierra Leone since at least early 2023.
“It is the highest priority of police and prosecutors to get him to the Netherlands to serve his sentence. We are doing everything we can in that regard,” Dutch prosecutors’ office spokesman Wim de Bruin said, declining further comment.
Reuters says it was not able to reach Leijdekkers.
The Dutch judges who convicted him noted in their court ruling that he did not mandate an attorney to put forward a defense on his behalf in court. Guy Weski, the lawyer who last represented Leijdekkers in the Netherlands did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Videos and photos of a church mass in Sierra Leone on Jan. 1, 2025 show Leijdekkers, 33, sitting two rows behind Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, next to a woman.
Reuters identified Leijdekkers by using five different facial recognition tools to compare the man at the church, as seen in a video and images on Facebook and in another video on YouTube, with photos of Leijdekkers released by Europol in 2022. The tools all determined they were a match, ranging between 82 – 98% confidence.
Reuter reported that the three sources said the woman was Bio’s daughter Agnes and that Leijdekkers was married to her. Reuters could not confirm the relationship. Agnes Bio did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent to her email and her social media accounts.
The mass was held at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in the president’s hometown of Tihun, in southern Sierra Leone.
The three sources said Leijdekkers has high-level protection in Sierra Leone, where they said he frequently spends time. The sources declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Sierra Leone’s Information Minister and Government Spokesperson Chernor Bah did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent to him via WhatsApp by Reuters.
In a Sept. 4 update on the wanted notice for him, Dutch police said he was “one of the key players in international cocaine trafficking.” They said the 7,000 kg of confiscated cocaine shipments that were behind his 2024 conviction were likely a fraction of his business.
Citing intercepted communications, Dutch police said that Leijdekkers “has probably been laundering tens of millions of euros and hundreds of kilos of gold that may have been earned from the cocaine trade”. Reuters says it has no independent evidence to confirm that.
A source in Freetown told the Sierra Leone Telegraph that; most recently, a mini submarine was sighted at Black Johnson in Freetown, offloading suspected cocaine, with heavily armed men guarding it. Two days later the police came out with a statement that they found an “abandoned mini submarine” at Black Johnson, but nothing of police interest was found.
According to Reuters, over the last two decades, West Africa has become a major transit point for large volumes of cocaine being smuggled from Latin America to Europe, recording a number of large seizures of the drug.
Last year, members of a UK-based crime group were imprisoned for trying to smuggle 1.3 tonnes of cocaine, worth 140 million pounds, into the UK from Sierra Leone. Reuters could not establish if Leijdekkers was involved in the deal.
Dutch prosecutors have offered a 200,000-euro ($210,000) reward for tips that lead to the arrest of Leijdekkers, the highest ever for any Dutch fugitive.
The government of Sierra Leone has not yet commented on this breaking story, as call for President Bio to resign grows. Critics say that President Bio does not have the moral authority to govern Sierra Leone.
The unholy and toxic nexus between politics and drug trade in Sierra Leone is deeply alarming. The presence of a convicted Dutch drug trafficker on the run, reportedly residing in our country as the guest and spouse of the president’s daughter, is disastrous for our international reputation. And allegations of our embassy’s involvement in a cross-border drug trafficking incident in neighbouring Guinea further reinforce claims that our nation has become a haven for the drug trade, driven by self-serving, corrupt and venal politicians. These individuals, in their relentless pursuit of wealth, are willing to irreversibly drag the country’s name through the pestelential mud of their cupidity measureless.
Fly Fly Fly President! This is the irony of the decade. President Bio has been flying all over the globe since assuming power to clean the country’s image, he says. Now his ambassador to Guinea has been given his marching orders foe cocaine trafficking. Also. his government is giving sanctuary to a drug fugitive (a Dutch national). I believe all the water in the Rokel river will not clean the country’s image for the rest of his tenure in office.