03x01 - Coke of je leven

[bunniefuu]

After a year-long manhunt
Ridouan Taghi stood ...

for the first time in March 2021
justifiably...

here in the Bunker
in Amsterdam Osdorp.

Everyone wondered, of course:

Who is this most wanted criminal
of the Netherlands?

What does he look like,
what does his voice sound like?

Only
old photographs of him available.

He made his first
himself.

VO: Meanwhile, the Marengo process is
in full swing...

and is anything but quiet.

Following the m*rder of the brother and lawyer
of key witness Nabil B...

his confidant
Peter R. de Vries is shot dead.

In broad daylight in the busy
center of Amsterdam.

He was determined to solve so many more
m*rder cases to solve.

But now he himself is the victim
of m*rder.

There was hope for a miracle,but
this afternoon an end came....

to that battle.Peter R. de Vries
turned 64.

RUTTE: I know that everyone
involved in that...

tremendously driven to make sure...

That this cowardly act
will not go unpunished.

VO: In several courts there are
currently in litigation...

against dozens of suspects
who are indirectly involved

at the so-called mocromafia.

For over
decade.

But how did all this
come to this?

How did this w*r ever start?

What conflicts
were all at play?

In this new season of
'The Hunt For The Mocro Mafia' ...

I go back in time
and explore this web...

that is full of
betrayal,pride,distrust....

violence and fatalities.

I speak to
journalists,investigators...

prosecutors,witnesses....

and relatives.And I bring new
facts from ongoing investigations.

I also track down people
from around Taghi.

People who,like me, would have been
would have been put on a death list.

VO: In 2012, Amsterdam is
plagued by robberies...

street robberies and burglaries.
The perpetrators are often teenagers.

What the police a few years ago
were already warning about...

has come out: The youth
in the Diamond Quarter...

who some seven years ago
caused a nuisance...

are now up to their ears
in crime.

Yesterday morning around eleven o'clock
two robbers entered the business

of Fred and his brother Gerard Hunt.

The brothers offered resistance.

One received blows,
the other was shot.

VO: Mayor
Eberhard van der Laan ...

introduces a top 600 approach.

He targets the 600 worst
multiple offenders in the city.

Those 600 were chosen with care.

These are also guys
who for the last five years...

together were good
for 15,000 arrests.

So an average of 25 per person.

In 2012 we had to deal
with robberies,burglaries ...

You can make up all kinds of things.

But if you compare it to
what we're dealing with now....

it is a completely different time.

The focus at that time was very much
on other things...

than organized crime.

It was more on high impact crime.
Street robberies,muggings.

Holland was unsafe,
that had to be improved.

So that's where the focus was,
not organized crime.

And the police, in addition, were very
concerned with their own organization.

You had the reorganization
of the police.

So it was about the formation
of ONE police force.

And that's where all the attention went.

At that time, the focus was not
on the drug trade...

That was more in neighborhood
issues.

We had in South
a lot of problems.

We had in West around the
Mercatorplein a lot of problems.

The neighborhood-oriented approach
was more paramount

than dealing with drug trafficking.

One thought: If you're going to be on the front end
in the neighborhoods...

and you pick it up there
from an early age...

Then we achieve more effect.

That's where the priority was.

You can only
distribute only ONE time.

VO: Out of sight of police
and justice...

drug trafficking is growing in 2012
harder than ever before.

Through the ports of Rotterdam
and Antwerp

kilos of cocaine are coming in.

ONE of those criminal groups
engaged in during that time....

with drug trafficking,is the group around the
Amsterdam's top criminal...

Gwenette Martha.

Who was this criminal?

And why is he ONE
of the key figures....

who stood at the cradle of the
contemporary mocromafia?

Gwenette Martha marks a bit of
the turning point...

from the old Dutch penoze
to the new mocromafia.

The old people were
Holleeder,Stanley Hillis....

and then you got
the new mocro boys.

Gwenette Martha was ONE of them.

Gwenette Martha came to the Netherlands as an
eight-year-old boy to Holland.

Came from a difficult family.

He was, I think, at that time
known primarily as a soccer talent.

He could go quite far
He was at Jong Ajax.

In the Netherlands, he soon became
involved with criminal youth.

The first time Gwenette Martha
was known to the police

was sometime when he himself was
was about twelve years old.

Then he came into contact
with the vice police

For shoplifting.

And that went on from there.

They became street robberies,robberies.

VO: Martha, together with his brother
Giovanni part of...

of a notorious group of youths who are
known as The Boys of the South.

It is March 4, 1992...

when Gwenette is out with his brother
Giovanni is out and about...

at disco Escape.

The two get into an argument with a group of
boys from Amsterdam-West.

The groups will be expelled from the club
expelled...

but outside the situation escalates.

ONE of the boys grabs a g*n
and shoots Giovanni dead.

His brother Giovanni was at one point
moment m*rder*d...

and that has had a huge impact
on his life.

Died in his arms.
Then there was a kind of turning point.

He came into increasing contact
with the police.

Robbed.He was sent away
at Ajax.

Then they became armed robberies.

A nationwide investigation has been
opened on him

To all kinds of armed robberies
on banks.

He did that with a club of people,
including his old friends from the South.

Only later,in the late 1990s,
do you see him passing...

to the drug trade.Then it becomes
a serious player...

In the field of coke trafficking
and the heroin trade.

VO: Together with his childhood friend
Houssine...

he is at the helm of a
criminal group.

The group from the south also includes
Najeb Bouhbouh.

Gwenette Martha remained
fairly under the radar.

But by 2007, the investigators were fed up.

A major investigation is being
launched,particularly into money laundering.

And from that research comes a
disconcerting picture emerges.

Of a posh criminal
Who runs wide.

Who drives big cars,
Who throws money around.

And about 200,000 euros a week in turnover.

We did see more that he was in a
kind of leadership role.

He apparently made
so much money...

with something,which can hardly be anything else
be drug trafficking.

In the robberies
he committed...

you can't take
at looting.

And then there's one more thing.

Because then he gets into a fight
in the disco Sinners.

This gets completely out of hand.
Martha comes in...

with his entourage.

A conflict arises
at the checkroom.

And he gets into a fight
with a woman.

That one gets finely beaten up.

Broken eye socket,concussion.

Things get really heated.

The judge charged him especially
this as*ault very severely.

And in the end, Gwenette Martha is
convicted...

For that as*ault,
for drug trafficking...

for money laundering and for weapons possession.

And he gets a hefty sentence,
seven years.

And he is sitting it out here behind me,
in Heerhugowaard.

Gwenette Martha was actually
soon tired of it.

And who was plotting
an escape attempt.

Actually, one
Following a classic model.

On Whit Monday 2008
there was a soccer tournament here

in the courtyard.

And during that tournament, he saw an opportunity
to cut a hole in the fence.

He climbed under that fence,
waded through the moat.

And while the fellow inmates
stood applauding loudly....

And cheering,Gwenette Martha climbed
over the wall

and then there was a van here
waiting.

That's where he got in.That van
took off at full speed.

And Gwenette Martha had escaped.

And a second detainee
who also tried all that...

stuck in the moat,
that attempt failed.

But Gwenette Martha
was at large again.

Of course, the police immediately start
a major investigation.

But that does not produce any trace.

And so the police decide
a year later.

The program "Opsporing Verzocht
asking for help.

And in that way, Gwenette becomes
Martha for the first time...

also really a well-known criminal,
his picture is shown on TV.

And a reward is being offered
of 5,000 euros.

Justice is diligently seeking...

To the Amsterdam criminal
Gwenette Martha.

Martha escaped last year from the
Heerhugowaard prison....

and has been without a trace ever since.

He escaped,he lived for a while
living in Belgium.

In Antwerp,the source of the
drug trade at that time.

I think that's where he gained all his
connections there.

He also gained more and more
Moroccan friends.

I think that's where a little
originated...

that he went all
gone into the coke business.

Gwenette Martha manages to stay
staying out of the hands of the police.

He really is missing, there is a
man and power are searching for him.

But then things go wrong in Belgium.

He is checked
At a traffic stop

actually dumb luck.

And ONE observant cop recognizes him,
calls in an arrest team...

And it's end of story for Martha.

He will still go to jail
and has to serve his sentence.

VO: And while Martha is once again
is in jail...

his best friend
Najeb Bouhbouh takes over his business.

JOHN: It's about Bouhbouh,
a close friend of Gwenette Martha.

Bouhbouh has an appointment here today
an appointment at the hotel.

He sits unsuspecting
in the restaurant.

He has no idea that at that
moment a car is approaching...

with two shooters in it.

Those gunmen park their car
across from the main entrance

And when Bouhbouh leaves the hotel
through the main entrance...

then the gunmen get out,
walk up to him.

Then almost immediately he is taken by those
gunmen under fire.

He is struck by multiple b*ll*ts
struck.

He dies here in front of the hotel
in Antwerp.

The Belgians have a liquidation
in Antwerp.

Those are actually asking us
for information.

We have a victim here,a
liquidation,we don't have that much.

Can you help us with the
background of that person?

Then it turns out pretty quickly for us
that Bouhbouh...

is a buddy of Gwenette Martha.

Also in a lot of
intelligence reports....

the name of Bouhbouh
came up...

As well as Martha's.
You could tell pretty quickly...

That there is an actual connection
between the two.

It was immediately clear to us
that there was...

Of a criminal reckoning.

Because he walked out,
he was waited on.

Someone walks up to him
And shoots him dead.

And then the people fled
all ran away.

So it's not just
a casual quarrel.

Nor were there any witnesses
claiming that.

It really was
a planned liquidation.

MICK: If Bouhbouh is liquidated
in Antwerp...

then the police don't know very much
about Martha and Bouhbouh.

They know that Bouhbouh
is Martha's right-hand man.

But what conflicts are at play
in that circuit...

how big they have become
in the cokemafia....

that is totally unknown to the police.

VO: It appears that this is
about Houssine.

Someone who previously belonged to the camp
of Martha.

Why would he, together with the
at that time unknown Ben...

Bouhbouh want to liquidate?

Not to mention someone from his own camp.

VO: The port of Antwerp is the second largest in Europe after
of Rotterdam, the largest in Europe.

Millions of
containers of goods come ashore.

Among the cargo
criminals often hide...

the white gold for them,cocaine.

Actually, you can say
that in Europe ...

two really important funnels
are...

for the cocaine trade to Europe.

So two places where most of the coke
comes in from South America.

Those are Antwerp and Rotterdam.

The big difference between the port
of Antwerp and Rotterdam...

is that the port of Rotterdam is
is reasonably controllable

but Antwerp is just
AN open field....

Where you get on and off easily.

There is very little control and that
the criminals have seen very well.

MICK: For criminal groups
like Martha's...

those outliers are crucial.

They make sure that the coke
is taken out of the containers

before they are controlled.

And you have different organizations
that specialize in that.

In the Netherlands and in Belgium.

And ONE such organization in Belgium,
they're called the Turtles.

MICK: A Moroccan-Belgian
organization...

who has good contacts
in the port.

So corrupt contacts
among customs officials...

who are very smart, very good
at lashing out.

VO: And the same thing happened in 2012.

The Turtles are instructed
to deliver a batch of coke...

from ONE of the containers.

A key moment in the early stages
of that underworld w*r

that takes place in Antwerp.

There is a batch of 200 kilos of coke
going missing.

Then it is w*r,
that's when the misery really begins.

VO: The batch of coke from South America
was ordered by Houssine.

He, together with his brother-in-law
Benaouf A...

invested in that party.

The two suspect
that they were ripped off by the Turtles.

And that thought is confirmed
when they hear...

That a batch of coke
has turned up in Amsterdam.

VO: Benaouf and Houssine
are furious.

They want the coke or their money back.

And so they send some henchmen
to Antwerp's Borgerhout....

Where the Turtles come from.

MICK: It's a bit
unclear story.

There are different variants,but
what it really comes down to...

is that a punitive expedition
has been organized

by Amsterdam criminals
to teach the Turtles a lesson.

MICK: One of the members of the Turtles
would have been kidnapped.

There he is hung over
a meat grinder...

and it says: If you
don't pay,then this will happen.

After the punitive expedition
things are on edge.

There is even more distrust,
even more discontent,ambiguity.

The group Martha is angry because the
Turtles have been attacked...

their outliers.

The group Houssine is angry because
a batch of coke has disappeared.

And you see that mutual
distrust is growing...

anger back and forth.

VO: Two camps are forming:
Camp Martha and Camp Houssine.

MICK: And then you see
that the old friends of yore...

The allies who together
have grown so much

directly opposite
come to a head.

And then you have on one side
the group Martha...

and on the other side
the Houssine group.

And then it's w*r.

VO: And then,six months later.

Bouhbouh,Martha's right-hand man,
has an appointment in Antwerp.

Bouhbouh has an appointment here that day
an appointment at the hotel.

It was immediately
clear...

That there was
of a criminal settlement.

VO: Police discover
that Bouhbouh was not alone.

After the appointment, he leaves the hotel
namely...

along with his good friend
Chris Bouman.

And then when the police look back
of the attack look back...

Then they discover something strange.

Because Chris Bouman
does not care about his friend.

Who walks away almost immediately
from the scene of the crime

and walks here behind me
toward the Esso gas station.

In a liquidation,that must
scare everyone.

You then see people running away.

Or you see people walking away quietly,
that's possible.Everyone is different.

But that is very strange:
Chris B actually walks quite quietly.

Who is then also fumbling a bit.

And then when you see how that liquidation
went...

And the reaction of that Chris...

then already as a police officer you get
a strange gut feeling.

Something is not right about that case.

And the investigators
wonders, of course:

Why does he leave there,
why doesn't he render first aid?

And why is Chris Bouman reacting
reacts so strangely?

An investigation is still being
investigated.

And then we find the back
of a telephone.

There is a sticker
another phone number on it.

VO: The police still don't know
who the phone number belongs to.

Nor who left that back
of a phone left behind.

But decides to have this Chris Bouman
after.

And there is more.

Just down the road in Turnhout
witnesses saw something suspicious.

The perpetrators eventually
into this parking lot.

The switch to another
getaway car is not seen by anyone.

But the witnesses afterwards
do see a BMW...

driving around, doing a little
strange rounds.

ONE of the witnesses later states:
I saw someone sitting in that BMW.

Who looked in a way that I thought:

I shouldn't be
lurking at that.

Eventually that BMW here
away again...

And the detectives wonder
Who is this person?

And does that person have anything to do
with the liquidation on Bouhbouh?

VO: A few days later
a burned-out BMW is found.

In Amsterdam-West,
Spaarndammerbuurt...

A burned-out German rental car is
is found.

It was based on the license plate
obvious...

that that car was involved
in the liquidation

of Bouhbouh in Antwerp.

A bottle is found in it,
a bottle of water.

In the cap of the water,
the drinking part...

DNA profiles are found.

And on the cap of the bottle
is DNA of Benaouf A.

Benaouf A is at that time
totally unknown yet.

Actually, we did not know Benaouf A
at all at that time.

At least,not in relation
to organized crime.

Then you are actually
exploring...

how the fork in the road
actually.

VO: When the investigative
investigating...

To the possible involvement
of Benaouf A...

in the liquidation
on Najeb Bouhbouh....

something strange happens again.

On Oct. 31, 2012...

exactly two weeks after the liquidation
of Bouhbouh in Antwerp....

an interesting incident takes place
takes place in Amsterdam.

The police see
a number of people walking.

Those being searched
because of suspicious behavior.

ONE of those people
turns out to be Gwenette Martha.

VO: Martha was at that time
released early.

He is in the company of three men.

Uniformed colleagues who are also
just being sharp again

Who think: That company ,
that's not quite right.

Those are addressed
and then it turns out

one wearing a bulletproof vest.
have.

One has a wig on,
none of that looks right.

And other had a double coat on.
So that's what that looks like.

And eventually those guys are
apprehended there.

Then you think:
This is not right at all.

And stuff is found
that you could use

for liquidation.
But that's not all.

In addition to those items, a
a remarkable bill found.

A bill is found
with a license plate number.

That license plate is in relation
relate...

With Benaouf A.

Then we actually think:
What's going on?

Very recently, Bouhbouh was liquidated
in Antwerp.

Martha now in this setting,
with these guys.

Who are no sweethearts either.

A bill with a license plate number....

which can be related
to Benaouf.

What is actually
going on here?

The police are becoming increasingly
interested in Benaouf.

Who is he? And what did he have to do
with the liquidation...

of Bouhbouh in Antwerp?

So the police are launching
a major investigation.

And that research is actually
only just underway...

when here in the Statesmen neighborhood
an unprecedented w*r erupts.

Automatic firearms
in a residential area.

A wild chase,cops
being shot at.

In Amsterdam last night
two Amsterdammers...

aged 21 and 28 m*rder*d.
The perpetrators are without a trace.

Shots were fired
with automatic weapons.

Multiple weapons were used.

What we saw last night,
is that there was a car...

here at the other car
had crashed...

and that he was riddled with b*ll*ts
in the front.

It was really bam,bam,bam.

I will soon not forget it.
That sharp sound.

Branch, branch, branch.

The double liquidation
in the Staatslieden neighborhood ...

That is unprecedentedly intense.

In the middle of a residential neighborhood
is being shot.

Two motorcycle officers
are taken under fire.

b*ll*ts fly through windows,
through a houseboat.

This violence the Netherlands has
never experienced before.

Two men step out
with automatic weapons

and they immediately start
sh**ting in his direction.

And he called out: ma'am,ma'am,
would you please call the police?

Because I was shot at.

Swims on in the icy water.

And then they give another
warning shot...

and eventually they sh**t targeted.

And eventually he feels safe
in Suriname,sitting there at the bar.

And a camera captures there...

How he will then still be
liquidated.

If it dies on that side then....

then it might die
on that side.