Dutch public prosecutors on the hunt for drug baron and fugitive believed to be in hiding in Sierra Leone, Jos Leijdekkers are seeking to confiscate his assets totalling $253 million.

News reports say the amount is the value of illegal assets amassed by the man on the run, also known as ‘Bolle Jos’, from the proceeds of cocaine trafficking.

According to the prosecutors, the assets include gold and luxury items. Leijdekkers is believed to have made about €114 million from 14 cocaine shipments in less than a year.

The prosecutors citing intercepted communications, say the 33-year-old Dutch national has also spent €47 million on 975 kilograms of gold in less than six months. They added that he also bought real estate including a hotel in Turkey and apartments in Dubai.

They allege that he has further acquired two Bentley cars, designer bags, jewellery and watches, bringing the total of the illicitly acquired assets to $253 million.

Leijdekkers, wanted for drug smuggling in The Netherlands, has also been described as Europe’s most wanted man. He has been given various prison sentences in absentia in multiple countries in Europe.

He was sentenced to 24 years in prison in absentia in June 2024 by a Rotterdam court for the offence of smuggling seven tonnes of cocaine, an armed robbery in Finland and for ordering murder. In September 2024, a Belgian court also sentenced him to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking offences and assault. Additionally, Dutch police suspect his involvement in the disappearance and suspected torture and murder of Naima Jilal, a woman who disappeared in Amsterdam in 2019.

Dutch media uncovered the wanted drug baron when they saw him in videos and photos posted online by the wife of the president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio. In the videos and photos Leijdekkers was seen attending a church service on New Year’s Eve in 2024, seated two rows behind the president and next to his daughter, Agnes Bio, believed to be in a romantic relationship with Leijdekkers.

Following the news, Sierra Leone authorities initially issued a statement saying they are unaware of Leijdekkers’s presence in the country. However, the Inspector General of Police of Sierra Leone, William Sellu later told journalists that the police has through its Open Source Investigation Unit after examining the photos and videos, have been able to establish that the said individual is rather known as Umar Sherif, and they have searched everywhere, but haven’t found him. They indicated that they have also looked at Sierra Leone’s immigration records and can’t find any information about when he entered or exited Sierra Leone.

Even though the two countries have no extradition treaty, the Dutch authorities sent an extradition request for the arrest and extradition of Leijdekkers to The Netherlands to the Sierra Leonean authorities.

At the end of February he was sentenced to 13 years in absentia again in Belgium for masterminding an attempt to retrieve 10 tonnes of seized cocaine being held in a customs warehouse in Kalmthout, a municipality in the Belgian province of Antwerp.

The attempt was foiled by Belgian law enforcement, arresting seven individuals who are facing 10-years in jail. Eleven others received various sentences from one to nine years, and two were acquitted.

Leijdekkers has since gone underground.

By Emmanuel K Dogbevi