In the Netherlands, members of a drug gang have been sentenced to life imprisonment. The defendants were accused of, among other things, contract killings. The alleged boss also received the maximum sentence.
In a mammoth trial against a notorious Dutch drug gang, the court has sentenced the three main defendants to life imprisonment. The judges also imposed the maximum sentence on the alleged gang boss, Ridouan Taghi, for several contract killings.
The penalties are slightly lower than the prosecution had demanded. She had demanded life imprisonment a total of six times. The remaining 14 defendants were sentenced to prison. The verdicts were announced under the strictest security measures in the high-security court in Amsterdam. Several defendants did not appear, including Taghi.
Key witness at the center of the prosecution
In the six-year trial, 17 members of one of the most notorious drug gangs, the so-called Mocro Mafia, were accused. They were accused of, among other things, six contract killings and four attempted murders from 2015 to 2017. The defendants remained silent during the trial. It is certain that their lawyers will appeal against the verdicts.
The focus of the prosecution was the testimony of a key witness. Nabil B., formerly an accomplice of Taghi, unpacked in 2017 in exchange for a reduced sentence. He has now been sentenced to ten years in prison.
But his statement led to an unprecedented wave of organized crime violence. The key witness’s brother, his lawyer and his confidant, the prominent crime reporter Peter de Vries, were murdered. These murders are the subject of separate proceedings, and verdicts will probably not be announced until the summer.