Europe’s most wanted fugitives are increasingly avoiding jail time by becoming Turkish citizens, police told VICE World News.
Police officials are increasingly concerned that criminals linked to large-scale drug trafficking are taking advantage of Turkey’s policy of issuing citizenship to investors and taking advantage of the country’s refusal to extradite its new citizens.
Rawa Majid, an accused Iraqi-Kurdish drug trafficker who suspected of serious crimes in Sweden also known as the “Kurdish Fox”, resides in Turkey after acquiring Turkish citizenship in 2020 through the so-called “Gold Passport” program, which offers citizenship in exchange for $400,000 (366,000 euros) in investment.
Despite arrest warrants from Interpol and Sweden, where he is one of the most wanted criminals, Turkey refuses to arrest or extradite him because of his citizenship.
“A request has been made for the extradition of Rawa Majid from Turkey,” told Henrik Söderman, Swedish prosecutor, told the news website POLITICO. “The Turkish authorities have said that the extradition is not possible because Rawa Majid is a Turkish citizen.”
Turkey refuses to extradite Majid, citing Sweden’s refusal to extradite several people whom President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan considers “terrorists” have been labeled, including a journalist accused of trying to overthrow Erdoğan’s government and a teacher who allegedly tried to “undermine the constitutional order”. When Sweden applied to join NATO last year in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkey, itself a NATO member, blocked the application because of Sweden’s refusal to deport these people.
But according to European police officials, who spoke anonymously to VICE World News due to diplomatic sensitivities, the problem with Turkey’s citizenship program is much bigger than one Kurdish drug smuggler.
They say accused drug smugglers are increasingly seeking refuge in Turkey, as well as the United Arab Emirates, where people with lots of money to invest can easily apply for residency — but no citizenship.
“The UAE, and Dubai in particular, has a well-known problem in providing residence permits to known cartel figures, with a rather insensitive extradition process that has allowed several accused smugglers to live at large,” said a Belgian official. “But Turkey is quite a special case because it actually provides citizenship to anyone with about half a million dollars. Between the Netherlands and Belgium alone, there could be about ten fugitives with Turkish passports.”
Three European police officers cited the same example of another drug smuggler using the Turkish citizenship program: Jos Leijdekkers, also known as “Bolle Jos” due to his large size, an accused Dutch cocaine smuggler and one of the most wanted people in Europe, who is suspected of at least one gruesome murder.
“We know that Bolle Jos has bought Turkish citizenship and therefore cannot be sent abroad for a court hearing according to the Turkish constitution,” says a Dutch official. “He is a Flemish guy from Breda, apart from what he paid them for that passport, he has no connection whatsoever with Turkey.”
The Dutch police offers a record amount of 200,000 euros for information about Leijdekkers’ whereabouts. Based on evidence from the hack of Sky ECC, which has led to hundreds of indictments across Europe since 2021, it tops the Dutch and European lists of most wanted persons.
Leijdekkers, 31, is accused of smuggling thousands of kilos of cocaine through the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, which have become the main points of entry for cocaine into Europe. He is also accused of laundering hundreds of millions of euros in drug money through gold shipments between Turkey and Dubai.
“The encrypted messages show that Leijdekkers was involved in the laundering of hundreds of millions of euros and hundreds of kilos of gold, which he probably earned through the smuggling of cocaine,” said a statement from Europol. “During the large-scale criminal investigation, the investigative team compiled a criminal file on Leijdekkers’ involvement in the import of large quantities of cocaine via the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp.”
Judging by the Sky ECC messages and photos found on the phone of his notorious Dutch cocaine-smuggling colleague Ridouan Taghi have been found, Leijdekkers becomes aware of it suspicious to have ordered the kidnapping, torture and murder of Dutch-Moroccan cocaine broker Naima Jillal in 2019.
Jillal, whose body was never found, disappeared in Amsterdam after Leijdekkers suspected her of being involved in stealing a shipment of cocaine. After Taghi’s arrest in Dubai in 2019 alleged pictures of her torture and murder appeared on his phone found itleading police to conclude that her body will probably never be found again.
“Private flights between Dubai and Turkey are difficult to track, and he is known to have Turkish and fake passports,” said the Dutch official, who declined to confirm recent reports that police believe Leijdekkers often come to the Netherlands under a false identity. . “As he has properties in Turkey and Dubai and he can travel between those countries without fear of arrest, it is extremely difficult to pinpoint his location.
The Turkish embassy in The Hague did not respond to a request for comment.
This article originally appeared on VICE UK.
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