The family of the undercover agent who committed suicide during a mission last April, tells for the first time how they experienced that time. De Telegraaf writes a triptych about the operation and spoke extensively with the widow of agent ‘Peter Paul’. The first part appeared on Friday evening.
Living with a husband and father who worked as an undercover cop isn’t easy. Wherever the family was, at any moment there was the possibility that he would be exposed. The whole family was dominated by the agent’s work. There were all kinds of agreements within the family. “A nod of the head was enough. We then walked out of the restaurant without saying anything,” the woman tells the Telegraph.
Kids dyed daddy’s hair
The work of the undercover agent was taken into account in all aspects of family life. On their way to a holiday destination, the family often traveled separately. The children dyed daddy’s hair, social media was not used, and the family was trained not to end up in other people’s (holiday) photos.
It was life-threatening work for her husband, the officer’s wife accepted that, she tells the newspaper. “If he actually got shot, at least we knew it had happened because of the work that made him happy. I always had a criminal in mind. But I never thought that the very organization he loved working for would be dead. would become.”
Collapsed under pressure
Yet in the end it was not a criminal who took his life. He did that himself. The agent worked from early 2020 until his death in April last year under severe and risky conditions during an operation in Zevenbergschen Hoek. It was aimed at a suspected drug criminal, Joop M., who is suspected of cocaine trafficking and money laundering.
The undercover cop had to pose as his jovial neighbor Peter Paul and bond with M. and his partner. Over time, he became trapped and finally succumbed to the pressure. The police did not do enough with signals that he was not doing well.
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