“The Little One” was the international nickname of Janus van Wesenbeeck. He is small in stature, but became one of the largest drug traffickers in Europe. Character Ferry Bouman from the Netflix series Undercover is just an excerpt, you could conclude from the book “Drug Baron” by crime journalist Vico Olling. The reality of the laconic violence, shootings and the brightly colored camper life in the book leaves Undercover pale.
By @Wim van de Pol
Van Wesenbeeck (1961) is given ample opportunity to speak in the book.
His story is synchronous with important developments in the history of Dutch caravan residents. With the Caravan Act of 1968, the government wanted to concentrate and control the “travellers”. Large camps such as the Doolplein in Eindhoven were the result. This is where Janus was raised and was taught the norms and values. There are more of these in the microcosm of the caravan world than the ordinary citizen can imagine.
Many “campers” chose to earn a living independently. In the words of Van Wesenbeeck:
Travelers first started with waste paper, rags and iron. Everyone turned their noses up at that trade, except us. Until the government took that away. That’s when we started the used car business. That has also been taken away. That’s when we got into weed. They took that away from us too. Yes, and then we got into hard drugs.
Hammering away
Van Wesenbeeck tells many stories from the past, where it is striking that from an early age the men in Janus’ world have been quick to take action if something does not please them.
Later in life, childhood friend Piet will furiously fire on Janus in the parking lot of the McDonalds in Best during a chance meeting. They had a disagreement about money (Janus shot back, causing painful but not fatal injuries).
Another red line is the tense relationship many caravan residents have with the authorities.
Janus’ father Grad didn’t think much of it: “Our dad has punched almost every Eindhoven police officer in the mouth,” Janus says.
Good math
Janus van Wesenbeeck is smart and – like most campers – can calculate extremely well. Like most campers, his level of education remained very low. But this did not hinder his criminal career. His dexterity with numbers came in handy.
Van Wesenbeeck started importing German vans very honestly. But it soon turned out that getting hash from Morocco with a camper was much more lucrative. Janus about this: ‘I sometimes think: suppose that first transport had not been successful, then I would have started selling Mercedes buses with Tinus again. That went really well.’
Wouten
The disadvantage of the hashish trade was the interest of ‘the wild’ and the judge, which resulted in two prison sentences. The longest sentence, five years, gave Van Wesenbeeck’s career a new start. In the cell he met a prisoner who could provide him with raw material for ecstasy pills.
When he comes out he’ll be 37 and the rest is history. Judging from the criminal file that the Belgian justice later compiled about him, the Eindhoven resident, with his network of (also) Mexican, Scottish and Belgian connections, managed to send drug transports out into the world at a dizzying pace. It did not stop at synthetic drugs such as ecstasy and speed, the transports also contained cocaine.
Pearl beach
He built a villa for his daughter on a substantial piece of land in a wooded area near Lommel (B). He had a chalet built from Indonesian hardwood on the adjacent campsite of the Brabant real estate entrepreneur Peter Gillis. Business partners and friends settled in adjacent houses, and Janus recognizes the family atmosphere of the Doolplein.
This “Pearl Beach” campsite is an important setting in the Netflix series Undercover and was in reality the nerve center of Janus’ drug network.
One of Van Wesenbeeck’s annoyances about Netflix’s work is that the character Ferry Bouman runs an ecstasy lab, while he himself says he has never had such a lab (another annoyance, and one of the reasons he collaborated on Olling’s book, is that Netflix’s lawyers refuse to acknowledge that Undercover is about Van Wesenbeeck).
Senior Belgian judicial official
Van Wesenbeeck states that he has been kept closely informed by a senior Belgian judicial official about investigations into him by the police. As for identification, the reader must make do with the designation ‘Mr. Easter’. Moreover, Van Wesenbeeck says he also had a paid contact with a police force.
British undercovers
The police took the trouble to introduce two British undercovers into his circle of acquaintances in the investigation into Van Wesenbeeck at the campsite near his. He himself insists that he was aware that Billy and Nina, and also a third party, were infiltrators. ‘Mr Easter’ and also Peter Gillis are said to have informed him about this.
Janus van Wesenbeeck also says that he realized what was going to happen when Billy and Nina organized a party at the Parelstrand campsite one day where they were going to announce a ‘special event’.
Three years of police investigation into Janus came to an end at that party, on Sunday, June 14, 2009, around lunch.
Undercover Nina had dressed in white for the occasion and Billy rode a hobby horse, like the prince on a white horse. After them, the arrest units stormed onto the Pearl Beach.
Tons of cocaine
The Belgian public prosecutor who brought the case to court doubts that Van Wesenbeeck was aware of the game. She pointed out in her indictment that Janus and Billy had organized a transport of more than a ton of cocaine in detail.
Janus says one big lie, ‘I never gave or asked Billy anything.’
Why hadn’t Janus fled when he heard from Mr. Easter that a police raid and arrest was imminent? He says that the shooting at the McDonalds in Best, and the long and painful medical treatment, kept him near Eindhoven at the time. “It was no longer possible to flee,” he says, and perhaps he was right: co-suspects were arrested as far away as Panama and Dubai.
After the conviction, Van Weesenbeeck tried in vain to get the European judges to revise his case, in particular regarding the role of undercovers Nina and Billy.
Bombings
The sixty-year-old survived bomb attacks over the years and (in addition to the shooting with Piet) an assassination attempt in which he escaped death with the gunmen in a gunfight.
His wife died after a long illness. He’s taking it easier. He doesn’t want any more ‘misery’: ‘That doesn’t benefit anyone. I used to seek it out, now I want to stay away from it. I want to travel a bit again in the future.’
He calls drug trafficking ‘an addictive game’ that has ‘literally cost him a lot of free time’.
Also see:
Drug criminal Janus van W. reports to the police as ‘Ferry Bouman’ (UPDATE)
Daughter Janus van Wesenbeeck gets villa back
Janus van Wesenbeeck wants to stop TV series
Janus van W. suspect in mega-ecstasy operation (UPDATE)
