A drug case involving the wanted Dutch drug criminal ‘Bolle Jos’ will start this week in court in Tongeren, Belgium. A preliminary hearing will take place there on Thursday in a drug case with 57 suspects. Including the former corrupt National Guard Willy van Mechelen. This was written by the Flemish newspaper De Standaard on Thursday.
Costa
At the end of 2019, customs discovered a shipment of almost 3 tons of cocaine from Costa Rica on the quay in Antwerp. That was the start of the investigation, which was codenamed Costa. Dozens of people are now in court, including the Dutch drug baron ‘Bolle Jos’ L. (32).
The shipment of 3 tons of cocaine turned out to be destined for a company in Maasmechelen. The detectives tracked the drugs when a transporter came to collect the load. But it turned out to go to a warehouse in the Netherlands. Tom B., a 55-year-old port manager, is said to be the kingpin behind the smuggling, together with the infamous ex-gendarmerie Van Mechelen.
Cracking
Because the police managed to crack the SKY-ECC encryption service, detectives were able to read how former National Guard Willy Van Mechelen maintained contacts with criminal organizations such as the Italian Aquino clan, and the group around Geert Frisson and “Bolle Jos”. Leijdekkers is a suspect in numerous major cocaine smuggling cases, usually via the port of Antwerp. He was previously also the most wanted drug criminal in Belgium.
The charges concern the import and trade of drugs, participation in various criminal organizations, money laundering, prohibited possession of weapons and violation of professional secrecy.
Willy van Mechelen and the containers
Former BOB police chief Willy van Mechelen is also associated with the passage of containers containing drugs in the 1990s, which would indirectly have led to the liquidation of Belgian criminal Martin Swennen in 1996. Read here how that worked.
