Yesterday at 9:16 PM • Edited yesterday at 9:47 PM
51-year-old Harry Leijdekkers, the older brother of top criminal ‘Bolle Jos’ from Breda, is suspected of laundering large sums of money through the trade in gold. This is what the Algemeen Dagblad writes. One detail in particular stands out: he is said to have bought no less than 277 kilos of gold in a short time with criminal money.
According to Algemeen Dagblad, judicial documents show that Harry Leijdekkers used millions of euros to purchase large quantities of gold. Those purchases took place in 2020 and were allegedly intended to launder money from his brother’s drug trade and hide it from authorities.
’14 million euros’
The size of the gold trade is striking. In one transaction, Leijdekkers is said to have paid more than 10 million euros for 197 gold bars of one kilo each. Shortly afterwards, another purchase of 80 kilos of gold worth approximately 4 million euros followed.
According to the judiciary, buying gold is a well-known method of laundering illegally obtained money. Gold is easily tradable worldwide, retains its value and can be kept out of sight of banks or regulators relatively easily. In this case, Leijdekkers is said to have arranged the purchases without owning the gold himself.
Expensive watches
In addition to the gold transactions, he is also suspected of involvement in other money laundering activities, such as trading in expensive watches and processing millions of euros.
The brother of the top criminal was arrested in Istanbul in May and transferred to the Netherlands last week. He is currently in custody because the justice department fears that he would otherwise flee. The examining magistrate extended his pre-trial detention on Friday by fourteen days.
His brother Jos Leijdekkers is considered one of the largest cocaine traffickers in Europe and has been on the run for years. According to the judiciary, part of his assets were secured through these gold constructions.
Here you can read all the stories about Bolle Jos.
In this episode of the podcast Short and Concise you will hear why Bolle Jos is the most wanted criminal in our country:
