A multimillionaire drug trafficker who was linked to murder and kidnapping threats against the heir to the Dutch throne is on the run, after being accidentally released from prison.
An alleged leader of the Mocro mafia, Karim Bouyakhrichan, 46, was arrested in January following a money laundering investigation, but was accidentally released when a Dutch extradition request was mixed up.
He then went on the run this month in what was called “disturbing news.” The alleged cartel boss has also been linked to a plot to kidnap Princess Amalia, the heir to the Dutch throne.
The Mocro Maffia encompasses several large cocaine trafficking cartels and is suspected of smuggling drugs worth billions of euros over the last 15 years.
A multimillionaire drug trafficker linked to a plot to kidnap the heir to the Dutch throne, Princess Amalia (pictured), is on the run, having been accidentally released from prison.
In the photo, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and Princess Amalia of the Netherlands.
Security personnel stand guard outside the court bunker in Amsterdam-Osdorp before a hearing in which Dutch drug trafficker Ridouan Taghi of Mocro Maffia received a life sentence.
Dutch media have linked these cartels to threats made against the Dutch princess, according to BBC.
Threats of kidnapping by the world of organized crime even led to the Princess living in Spain for at least a year, as revealed last week.
Bouyakhrichan was pursued by Interpol for at least five years and was one of Europe’s most wanted criminals.
His brother, Samir, is suspected of founding a branch of the Dutch-Moroccan group Mocro Maffia before being shot dead in 2014.
And it is alleged that Bouyakhrichan subsequently assumed power. He was accidentally released when Dutch authorities requested his extradition.
This was initially approved, but local officials insisted that he face charges in Spain, where he was detained.
The prosecution eventually agreed to an appeal lodged by his lawyers and ordered his release, pending extradition, if he posted £43,000 bail.
Local media reported that “less burdensome” measures, such as forcing him to give up his passport and appear in court every 15 days, were considered sufficient to address the risk of fleeing.
And he appeared in court regularly from February 22 until April 1, when he disappeared.
A spokesman for the Dutch prosecutor’s office told the BBC that it is “unknown” why he was released from prison.
Dutch drug trafficker Ridouan Taghi received a life sentence on February 27, 2024 for a series of murders that his gang, the so-called ‘Mocro Maffia’, led by Taghi and committed between 2015 and 2017.
The Dutch-Moroccan leader of the Mocro mafia, Ridouan Taghi, was arrested in 2019
In 2022, Dutch police ordered their Princess of Orange to abandon her studies in Amsterdam and return home for fear that the mafia was planning to kidnap her.
The authorities of the Netherlands have intensified security measures to protect the country’s crown princess, Catharina-Amalia, 18, who just a few weeks ago had left her parents’ royal residence in The Hague to begin her studies in the Dutch capital.
The teenage princess’s safety was in jeopardy due to the nefarious designs of the infamous ‘Mocro Maffia’, a division of the Moroccan mafia operating in the Netherlands and believed to control approximately a third of all cocaine trafficking in Europe.
The Dutch-Moroccan leader of the Mocro mafia, Ridouan Taghi, was arrested in 2019 and is currently in a Dutch prison.
De Telegraaf claimed that fears of an attempted kidnapping or attack on the princess arose when authorities discovered that Taghi had corresponded with one of his cronies who had murdered a Dutch filmmaker in 2004.
The couple sent each other several letters containing passages from the Koran, which Dutch authorities believe may contain coded messages.
The Mocro Maffia made headlines in the Netherlands in July 2021 when prominent investigative journalist Peter de Vries was shot dead in broad daylight on the streets of Amsterdam.