Joseph Leijdekkers operating in Sierra Leone, AFP reports

Joseph Johannes Leijdekkers, a convicted Dutch cocaine trafficker wanted in Europe, is operating in Sierra Leone with apparent support from senior levels of power, AFP reported, citing law enforcement information, local testimony and court documents.

Europol considers the 35-year-old, nicknamed “Bolle Jos” and also known as Omar Sheriff, a key figure in global cocaine trafficking. Dutch police have offered a €2 million reward for information on him. Dutch authorities are now convinced he is in Sierra Leone, although his exact whereabouts remain unclear.

AFP reported that videos that emerged in 2025 appear to show Leijdekkers at a New Year’s Day mass in the presence of President Julius Maada Bio and near senior officials. AFP said it could not independently verify the videos. Several sources close to the president’s family said Leijdekkers’s partner is Agnes Bio, the president’s daughter, with whom he has a child.

Sierra Leone authorities did not respond to AFP requests for comment. After the New Year’s video, police announced a manhunt for a man named Omar Sheriff, but the matter then went quiet.

Leijdekkers has received more than 100 years of prison sentences in the Netherlands and Belgium. In the Netherlands, he was sentenced in absentia two years ago to 24 years in prison for drug trafficking, armed robbery and ordering an assassination.

Dutch authorities have long sought his extradition, but the Netherlands has no extradition treaty with Sierra Leone. Relations have become strained, including over an EU aid disbursement that the EU told AFP was under review, without explicitly linking the review to Leijdekkers.

AFP also reported claims linking Leijdekkers’s network to cocaine shipments from West Africa to Europe. Spanish authorities seized 30 tonnes of cocaine from a ship that came from Freetown in May, and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said the operation bore the hallmarks of his network.