Freetown, 2nd June 2026 — The Dutch government is moving to halt European Union development aid to Sierra Leone, citing the West African nation’s failure to arrest and extradite convicted Dutch drug trafficker Jos Leijdekkers, widely known as “Bolle Jos,” Dutch media have reported.
According to NOS and De Telegraaf, Justice and Security Minister David van Weel told the television programme Binnenhof that the Cabinet wants other EU member states to join in applying financial pressure. “It is, of course, bizarre that we facilitate or support a country that simultaneously offers a safe haven to one of the biggest drug criminals known worldwide,” Van Weel said.
The European Union has allocated €325 million in subsidies to Sierra Leone for 2021–2027, in addition to regional and international programmes. Cutting this support, Van Weel argued, would send a clear signal to Freetown.
Leijdekkers faces sentences totalling around 80 years in the Netherlands and Belgium for large‑scale cocaine trafficking and related crimes. Dutch authorities estimate his illicit income at “hundreds of millions of euros per month” more than Sierra Leone’s gross national product, warning that such wealth risks corrupting the country’s institutions.
Van Weel said he had attempted to advance the extradition process through diplomatic channels, meeting Sierra Leone’s justice minister in May. But he received the same response heard for months: that procedures are “underway.” He admitted he was under “no illusion” that politics alone would deliver results.
The Justice Minister also pointed to the record seizure of 30,000–45,000 kilograms of cocaine in the Canary Islands earlier in May. Spanish police arrested several Dutch nationals, and Van Weel insisted “everyone knows” the shipment was loaded in Freetown. “If you look at the amount of drugs that came off that ship, it cannot be true that cooperation with this operation was not provided across all levels,” he said.
Dutch media further reported that Leijdekkers is allegedly engaged to a daughter of Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, a relationship that may complicate extradition efforts. Last month, De Telegraaf revealed that Dutch authorities had prepared a covert operation involving special police and navy forces to capture him at sea in West Africa, but the mission was aborted at the last moment. Van Weel declined to comment on that report during Buitenhof.
