The most wanted criminal in the Netherlands has been arrested in Colombia, according to Dutch media reports. Saïd Razzouki was detained by Colombian police last Friday morning in an apartment in a residential area of Medellín. His arrest was the result of a joint investigation by Dutch police, the American drug enforcement agency (DEA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Razzouki was wanted in the Netherlands to face charges related to drug trafficking, homicide and terrorism.
Colombian authorities captured Razzouki after a tip off from an informer that he had been Mosque in Medellín wearing a disguise. At a press conference announcing Razzouki’s arrest, General Jorge Ramírez, director of the Anti-Narcotics Police described the lengths he had gone to avoid detection:
“He did not use media, technology or networks, he came to the point of losing contact with his family for more than eight years. Investigators traced his whereabouts using drones that flew over the city trying to locate him due to his aversion to technology.”
Razzouki was the right hand of another suspected drug trafficker and Ridouan Taghi, who had been the Netherlands’ most wanted criminal before he was arrested in Dubai last December and extradited to the Netherlands.
Taghi was considered to be the leader of the extremely violent Dutch-Moroccan drug trafficking cartel. He and Razzouki are accused of ordering several murders in recent years while Razzouki is the main suspect in the so-called Marengo trial, which will begin next March and in which he is accused of involvement in five murders and several attempted homicides.
According to Dutch media the so-called Mocro Mafia sent cocaine from Colombia to ports in Spain and Portugal from where it was distributed to the rest of the continent. The gang has been operating for the last ten years from its bases in Amsterdam and Utrecht.
Nearly fifty people, including innocent bystanders, have been killed in turf wars involving the gang in the Netherlands, Spain, Suriname, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and other countries.
