By DAVID DAVIDSON, HARRY LENSINK
The internationally wanted cocaine kingpin Jos Leijdekkers is in high spirits as he hands out gifts at the birthday party of one of Sierra Leone’s top officials.
At an exclusive restaurant overlooking the coastline of capital Freetown, the Dutch-born Leijdekkers passes a wrapped gift to Alusine Kanneh, the head of the immigration service in the West African nation.
As a joke, the convicted felon then takes a watch from a table of presents and dangles it in front of Kanneh. An amused Andrew Jaiah Kaikai, the chief of Sierra Leone’s anti-drugs agency, watches on.
In the newly surfaced video of the glamorous 50th birthday event, which appears to date from last year, Leijdekkers is wearing a black-and-gold patterned Versace shirt.
The 33-year-old is clearly on excellent terms with the leadership of one of the poorest countries in the world. He prompts laughter and applause, and shares enthusiastic handshakes with the birthday boy Kanneh.
But European officials would like to see him in a very different setting: behind bars. Leijdekkers – alias “Chubby Jos” – has already been convicted in absentia by The Netherlands and Belgium to a total of 47 years for his involvement in massive drug smuggling.
Dutch prosecutors are working with the “highest priority” to extradite a man that Europol has described as “one of the key players in international cocaine smuggling”. But pleas from Europe are falling on deaf ears in a country where Leijdekkers is increasingly embedded with the elite, an investigation by Follow the Money and the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD) shows.
Power player
Evidence of Leijdekkers’ proximity to power in Sierra Leone has been building up since Follow the Money and AD reported in January that he had settled in West Africa.
Then, photos and videos showed him in the company of President Julius Maada Bio and his wife, sitting a pew behind the pair at a New Year’s mass.
Leijdekkers was sitting next to the president’s daughter Agnes Bio, a diplomat who runs her own charity – and with whom he is in a relationship, well-placed sources in Sierra Leone told Follow the Money.
In the images, Leijdekkers is also embraced by a man who appears to be Ambrose Sovula, the country’s chief of police until 2022.
See video below
A life of crime
In 2024, a Dutch court found Leijdekkers guilty of planning several major drug smuggling operations and of commissioning an assassination attempt on a criminal opponent. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison, but that sentence was handed down in absentia because he had already fled the country.
He first moved to southern Spain, a popular base for the international cocaine mafia, and later turned up in Dubai and Turkey. In Turkey he was detained but managed to escape in 2023, reportedly after bribing judges. His whereabouts were unknown until he resurfaced in Sierra Leone.
Last month, a Belgian court sentenced Leijdekkers to 13 years in absentia for planning the failed attempt by an armed gang to “recapture” an intercepted shipment of 10 tonnes of cocaine from Belgian customs in 2023. The perpetrators were jailed.
He had previously received 10 years for a similar offence committed in Belgium, also in absentia.
The criminal was also linked to the disappearance in 2019 of “Aunt” Naima Jillal, a fellow drug lord. Jillal’s apparently lifeless body was seen in photos that police found in criminals‘ decrypted phones. Despite strong indications of Leijdekkers’ involvement, the Netherlands has not yet found sufficient evidence to launch a criminal case.
The images from the start of the year prompted a media storm and an international manhunt, with The Netherlands making a formal extradition request in February.
Sierra Leonean police have said they are ready to cooperate with Dutch authorities, but appear to have taken no practical steps towards his extradition.
President Bio, meanwhile, has said he has no knowledge of a man who was partying with his top officials and is reportedly in a relationship with his daughter.
But sources, including members of the Sierra Leonean opposition, allege that officials are going out of their way to protect Leijdekkers because the drug lord has built up such a strong power-base in the country as to be essentially untouchable.
He has at his disposal important infrastructure in Sierra Leone such as air strips in the country’s interior and harbour facilities in Freetown, those sources told Follow the Money, which he uses for drug shipping operations.
Sources in Dutch law enforcement, who would not speak on the record, confirmed they shared this view. The West African country is a major hub for drug transportation into Europe.
Leijdekkers also receives physical protection from the Sierra Leonean government, it appears.
In photos obtained by Follow the Money and AD, the criminal is seen at a fenced-off building he is alleged to have used. In other photos of the building it is shown guarded by military and police officers. For security reasons, AD and FTM are not publishing these photos or the location of the property.
Opposition figure Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray, who is based in the US, has in recent weeks published detailed stories about Leijdekkers’ high-ranking connections and whereabouts. The video showing Leijdekkers at Kanneh’s 50th birthday party was also obtained from sources via Mansaray.
‘Free rein’
Kanneh, the head of the immigration service, had been connected to Leijdekkers even before the birthday event.
Kanneh appeared in a separate video that surfaced in January showing Leijdekkers involved in an altercation at a Freetown nightclub in 2023.
In a response to that video, Kanneh said that he had only acted as a peacemaker in the dispute and that he had “no connection whatsoever with [Leijdekkers]”. This stands in stark contrast to the friendly images of the two men at Kanneh’s birthday party.
Leijdekkers uses multiple identities and passports, sources in Dutch law enforcement said, making a link to the head of the immigration service a potentially invaluable connection. Opposition figures have previously accused the immigration department of handing out passports to foreigners illegally.
Anti-drugs chief Kaikai, who was also at Kanneh’s 50th birthday, has on paper been the designated official to handle the Leijdekkers case since he resurfaced in Sierra Leone.
His close proximity to these two men, among others, make it highly unlikely that he will be arrested, let alone extradited.
In fact, the only person arrested so far in the hunt for Leijdekkers has been the Dutch TV news reporter Sophie van Leeuwen.
She was in Sierra Leone to report on Leijdekkers for RTL Nieuws when the police detained her on suspicion of espionage.
“They confiscated everything: passport, phone, camera. ‘We’ve got her’, I heard. I was escorted through Freetown in a truck full of men wearing red berets, sunglasses and carrying guns,” Van Leeuwen said following her release.
“The unit that interrogated me is also responsible for investigating drug crime in Sierra Leone,” said Van Leeuwen, who was interrogated for two days.
The Netherlands said it was using all tools at its disposal to bring back Leijdekkers to face justice and has contacted other countries in West Africa in relation to the manhunt.
“We have informed [Guinea, Liberia and Mali] of Jos Leijdekkers’ red notice,” a spokesperson for the public prosecution service said.
The Dutch Minister of Justice David Van Weel meanwhile said this week that he had spoken to his Sierra Leonean counterpart concerning the case. “Criminals should not be given free rein anywhere,” he said in a statement following the call.
SOURCING AND VERIFICATION
For background on this story, Follow the Money and AD spoke extensively with sources in Sierra Leone and within the Dutch investigative services. The Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands, as well as Alusine Kanneh and Andrew Jaiah Kaikai in Sierra Leone, were asked for their response. There was no official response from Sierra Leone.
For security reasons, Follow the Money and AD are not revealing the original source of the video showing Leijdekkers at Kanneh’s 50th birthday party or how it was recorded. The video was checked for authenticity and examined with facial recognition. One hundred percent certainty can never be given. “But there is absolutely nothing that gives me the impression of a deepfake video,” said AI expert Jarno Duursma.
Jos Leijdekkers’ lawyer, Guy Weski, said when contacted for comment: “The most recent developments in publications about my client based on unverified sources seem to be aimed primarily at increasing international pressure now that apparently all [legal] means have failed to produce results.
“In that context, it is questionable whether what is being stated here is actually correct, or whether it concerns possibly exaggerated fabrications to force a sovereign country to do something.”
