The main suspect in the extortion case of Fruitbedrijf De Groot Fresh Group in Hedel was given the maximum prison sentence of 26.5 years on appeal on Friday. That punishment is the same as the requirement of the Public Prosecution Service (OM).
Ali G., a 40-year-old man from Bussum, has been the driving force in a large-scale extortion and threat of one of the largest fruit companies in the Netherlands, according to the Court of Appeal in Arnhem. In 2019, the management of the company found 400 kilos of cocaine between a load of bananas, after which G. began to send threatening text messages in which he demanded large amounts of money from the company. If the payment was not met, an employee of the company would be liquidated, G. threatened
Because the company refused to pay, fifteen attacks with fireworks bombs and shelling followed on several houses in Hedel in 2020 and 2021. A farm burned completely.
Blunder van Om
In 2019, the suspect was sentenced to nineteen years in prison, but his defense appealed. On Friday, however, the Court of Appeal ruled that there was also attempted murder, so that the punishment is higher. Eleven suspects were still on trial during the appeal. They have been sentenced to prison sentences between the ages of two and ten. One suspect was acquitted.
The Public Prosecution Service previously expected compensation to more than a hundred victims of the case, due to a blunder that uncovered sensitive personal data from the fruit company staff. Some of the attacks were prepared when G. and other suspects were already detained. Then it was discovered that names of hundreds of employees of De Groot Fresh Group were accidentally included in the criminal file of the case.
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