Freetown,21st May 2026 — Dutch special forces twice came close in recent weeks to arresting notorious fugitive drug trafficker Jos Leijdekkers, widely known as “Bolle Jos,” during covert operations in West Africa, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf has reported.
According to the publication, the missions approved by Prime Minister Rob Jetten’s cabinet after the previous Schoof government refused authorization would have involved Dutch marines and the national police’s special interventions unit intercepting Leijdekkers in international waters off Sierra Leone as he travelled by boat toward Liberia.
Both attempts in May were called off at the last moment due to unspecified “external factors.” Dutch media reported that one mission was aborted because Leijdekkers did not leave Sierra Leone as expected. Crime reporter John van den Heuvel suggested that “the momentum has disappeared” for further attempts.
The Dutch public prosecution department (OM) declined to confirm or deny the account but reiterated that Leijdekkers’ arrest remains its highest priority.
Plans for the operation were first drawn up in 2025 by police, prosecutors, and the defence ministry, but then‑justice minister Foort van Oosten and defence minister Ruben Brekelmans refused to approve them. The Jetten cabinet, sworn in on 23 February, later gave the green light, with current justice minister David van Weel and defence minister Dilan Yeşilgöz backing the plan.
In preparation, Dutch forces acquired a foreign‑registered private vessel to serve as an offshore base, as deploying a naval ship was deemed too risky. Marines and the DSI reportedly trained intensively for months.
Leijdekkers, 34, originally from Breda, has been sentenced in absentia to 24 years in the Netherlands and more than 50 years in Belgium for large‑scale cocaine smuggling and ordering a murder. He is also suspected in the disappearance of Naima Jillal and was ordered by a Rotterdam court to repay €96 million to the Dutch state.
After fleeing Europe in 2022, he resurfaced in Sierra Leone, allegedly posing as businessman “Omar Sheriff” and reportedly engaged to a daughter of President Julius Maada Bio. Sierra Leone has no extradition treaty with the Netherlands and has not responded to formal requests for legal assistance.
Dutch justice minister Van Weel met his Sierra Leonean counterpart in Geneva last week in what officials described as renewed efforts to secure cooperation.
Earlier this month, Spanish police intercepted a cargo ship sailing from Sierra Leone carrying more than 30 tonnes of cocaine, a seizure investigators have linked to Leijdekkers’ network.
