gang war

Increasing violence and drug trafficking in Antwerp has its roots in Netherlands organized crime, according to Antwerp mayor Bart de Wever. "The drug problems in terms of cocaine trafficking have moved from Rotterdam to Antwerp in recent years. Which means that the Netherlands owes a debt to the rest of Europe", he said to Nieuwsuur.

The police released screenshots from surveillance camera footage showing the gunman responsible for the murder of Reduan Bakkali in Amsterdam on Thursday morning. The suspect, 41-year-old Shurandy S., was already arrested, but the police are looking for the clothes he was wearing at the time of the murder.

The brother of key witness Nabil B., who was shot and killed in Amsterdam on Thursday morning, chose not to accept all the protection measures the Dutch authorities offered him, spokesperson Ties Kortman of the Public Prosecutor said, according to newspaper AD. 

A SWAT team arrested 22-year-old Rachid el M. in Amsterdam West on Wednesday morning. He is one of the main suspects in a foiled attempt to break criminal Benaouf A. out of the prison in Roermond using a hijacked helicopter in October last year, Het Parool reports.

El Em. is one of a handful of suspects who managed to escape after the attempted prison break. The police finally tracked him down in his brother's home in Amsterdam West.

A 17-year-old boy was killed and two others were injured in a shooting at a community center in the Amsterdam neighborhood of Wittenburg on Friday night. The boy was identified as Mohammed Bouchikhi. His family and scared local residents call on interim Amsterdam mayor Jozias van Aartsen to "do something" about the assassinations in the Dutch capital, the Telegraaf reports.

The police arrested 23-year-old criminal A. el B. from Diemen this week on suspicion of involvement in at least three attempted assassinations on Amsterdam criminals, Het Parool reports. The suspect himself survived an attempt on his life in 2016 and was previously twice convicted for illegal firearm possession.

A fourth suspect in an attempt to hijack a helicopter and break an Amsterdam gang leader from the prison in Roermond last week, was arrested. The suspect was arrested on Thursday last week, a day after the attempted jailbreak. He and three other suspects were arraigned and remanded into restricted custody, ANP reports. 

On Tuesday morning an Amsterdam SWAT team arrested a suspect in the assassination of Eaneas Lomp in Krommenie in November 2015. According to Het Parool, the suspect is 39-year-old Dani M. He and Lomp formed part of the same Amsterdam gang, which was involved in a number of gang related assassinations over the past years. 

The court in Amsterdam sentenced four suspects to life in prison in the appeal of the so-called Passage process, which revolves around a number of Amsterdam underworld assassinations. Dino Soerel, Jesse R., Mohammed R. and Siegfried S. will all spend the rest of their lives in prison, the court ruled, NOS reports.

When this case was first tried in 2013, Soerel was sentenced to only six months in prison for money laundering, he was acquitted for his role in the assassinations. The other three already had life sentences hanging over their heads.

Exactly a year ago today the severed head of Nabil Amzieb was found in front of shisha lounge Fayrouz on Amstelveenseweg in Amsterdam. A year later the case is still shrouded in mystery.

A new wave of assassinations seems to have hit the Nethelrands. In less than five weeks, four people were assassinated, two of them in this week, the Telegraaf reports.

Four assassinations in five weeks is a remarkably high number, given the fact that the average in the Netherlands is about eight a year. The high number is on par for the past three years. At least 60 assassinations were committed during this time. That massive increase is even more remarkable when you take into account that the total number of murders in the Netherlands decreased by about 30 percent since 2002.