Murdered drug dealer’s estate must pay €20 million to tax office

Murdered Eindhoven drug dealer Aran de Jong's estate has to pay the tax authorities more than 20 million euros in profits made from selling cannabis, the court ruled in an appeal brought by De Jong's heirs, Eindhoven Dagblad reports.

Aran de Jong was the leader of a professional drug gang. They collected large quantities of hashish and cannabis and smuggled it to England, Italy and Spain. In 2011 the police finally managed to dismantle the gang, after an intensive investigation. De Jong was murdered at his house shortly before the trial against him started.

The tax authorities calculated that De Jong earned more than 40 million euros with this drug trafficking. Despite the fact that there is no hard evidence of this number, the court agreed with the estimation. Because it is clear that De Jong concealed income in his tax returns, the court shifted the burden of proof to De Jong's heirs, who had to prove that the estimation is incorrect.

The heirs will appeal against the judgement, their lawyer said to the newspaper.