Hengelo man accused of cocaine smuggling now also a suspect in a judge murder plot
A Hengelo resident who is already in custody for smuggling hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Curaçao to the eastern Netherlands is now also suspected of plotting to murder a judge, RTV Oost reports, citing several sources.
The 51-year-old man, with initials K.C., was sentenced to 9 years in prison at the end of 2023 for smuggling around 700 kilos of cocaine. The amount was divided between multiple shipments packed in sand-lime bricks. The cocaine is reportedly worth tens of millions of euros. The judiciary is currently working on recovering the amount from the suspect.
After his cocaine conviction, K.C. was detained in the Karelskamp in Almelo. From there, he is said to have made plans to have a judge killed. The plan is said to have been leaked by another inmate.
To prevent a judge from actually becoming the victim of an attack, the suspect was immediately transferred to another prison. He was first in Vught, but he is now in the Intensive Supervision Department (AIT) of the Leeuwarden jail. K.C. denies the allegations.
There are four AITs in the Netherlands, with a maximum of fifteen detainees per department. In a standard prison department, that number can rise to ninety detainees. AIT prisoners are closely monitored at all times. The purpose of an AIT is to prevent convicted or suspected criminals from continuing to commit criminal acts from behind prison bars.
The police have also reportedly linked K.C. to an assassination attempt on lawyer Schol, who was shot in 2019 near his home, just across the German border. Despite alleged police suspicions, K.C. is not an official suspect.
The lawyer barely survived the attack at the time. In the meantime, two suspects have been sentenced to fifteen and seventeen years in prison.
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service said they cannot comment, as the transfer of detainees is a matter for the Judicial Institutions Agency (DJI). The DJI, in turn, stated that it cannot disclose information about individual detainees due to privacy reasons.
According to RTV's criminal underworld sources, some think the authorities are trying to frame K.C. "The justice system is simply screwing him," one source told RTV.
The suspect's family also states that 'the story is not true' and may reportedly provide a substantive response later this week.
K.C.'s lawyer, Roy van der Wal, also has doubts. "I cannot imagine that there is any truth to this," van der Wal told RTV Oost.
He added that his client has requested to be questioned about the case several times, but an interrogation has not yet taken place. "It is a serious allegation, and that deserves a serious investigation."
"We have now asked the investigating judge to be allowed to question the person who made the report. We do not have an answer to that yet," Van der Wal told RTV.
