One of Europe's most wanted drug lords has been in Sierra Leone for at least two years, spending time in nightclubs and at house parties.
Johannes Leijdekkers, alias Bolle Jos, has been sentenced in his absence to decades in prison for, among other things, large-scale cocaine trafficking and ordering a murder. In September, Dutch police said he was still wanted and offered a €200.000 (£170.000) reward for information leading to his arrest.
Bolle Jos protected by president
Last month, Leijdekkers was seen attending a New Year's Day church service with Sierra Leone's presidential family, in footage shared on Facebook by the country's first lady.
Reuters, which verified the images using facial recognition technology, cited sources as saying that Leijdekkers was benefiting from protection in Sierra Leone, one of several West African transit points for the cocaine trade from South America to Europe. In response to the images, Dutch prosecutors said that Leijdekkers had been living in Sierra Leone for at least six months.
But now it turns out that Leijdekkers has been in Sierra Leone since at least December 2022. According to sources, Leijdekkers is said to be in a relationship with Agnes Bio, the daughter of Sierra Leone's president, Julius Maada Bio. Leijdekkers and Bio sat next to each other at the church service on January 1 this year. Bio is the president's daughter from a previous relationship with Zainab Kandeh, Sierra Leone's consul in Morocco. She serves as Sierra Leone's deputy representative on the UN Security Council.
Leijdekkers is also said to have been present at Maada Bio's farm in his hometown of Tihun during a visit in 2024. Footage has circulated of a man who appears to be Leijdekkers being cheered on by villagers as he harvests rice.
Cocaine trafficking through West Africa
Leijdekkers, who has adopted multiple aliases and nicknames, including Bolle Jos, was sentenced in his absence in June by a court in Rotterdam to 24 years in prison for six drug shipments totaling 7.000 kg of cocaine, an armed robbery in Finland and ordering the murder of a business partner. He was also sentenced to 10 years in prison in Belgium in September for attempting to smuggle drugs through the port of Antwerp in 2020.
Criminal organizations have long used West African countries as transit ports for cocaine shipments from South America to Europe. The revelations about Leijdekkers come at an awkward time for authorities in Sierra Leone, who last month recalled their ambassador from neighboring Guinea after seven suitcases of suspected cocaine were found in an embassy vehicle.
After initial reports of Leijdekkers' presence in Sierra Leone, authorities in Freetown said the president had "no knowledge of the identity and matters mentioned in the reports about the person named." The presidential source told The Guardian that the presidency was only made aware of Leijdekkers' background on January 24, following a Reuters report. The official source did not provide further details.
At a press conference in Freetown last week, Inspector General of Police William Fayia Sellu said an “open source investigation” into the January 1 footage had established that “the person in the images circulated online is named Omar Sheriff.”
“There have been raids on specific locations where this person was said to be present, but he has not been found yet,” Sellu said. He declined to say how the man’s identity was established or whether Omar Sheriff and Johannes Leijdekkers are the same person.
Information Minister Chernor Bah said at the same press conference that investigators were looking into whether the man they had identified had been in the country for more than six months
It is still unclear whether Leijdekkers is still in Sierra Leone. Last week, the Dutch Minister of Justice said an extradition request had been sent to authorities in the country. A representative of the Dutch Ministry of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
Source: The Guardian
