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Direction: Christophe Bouquet & Mathieu Verboud
In Rotterdam, local street gangs join forces with Colombians to build their empire. Driven by raging demand, the cocaine trade has triggered an unprecedented wave of violence.
The second part of this documentary begins in Europe, in the 2000s. It traces the rise of major criminals who came to the Netherlands as immigrants. These include Gwenette Martha and Ridouan Taghi, who became the main contacts for South American cocaine dealers. To defend the bosses' interests, their organization practiced unprecedented violence. Murders of lawyers and journalists, acts of retaliation with military weapons, and threats against the royal family shook the country.
Some surviving drug dealers ended up in Dubai, the trading paradise of the Middle East. From here, they continued their business via encrypted communication platforms. When police authorities succeeded in cracking down on these platforms in 2020, they thought they had found the Holy Grail: thousands of drug dealers were arrested, record amounts of weapons, cash, and drugs were seized, and countless henchmen who had been secretly laundering money were identified.
But the criminal gangs reorganized in no time at all—and became even more agile and mobile than before. Further proof of the criminals' resilience and procurement capabilities was the price of a gram of cocaine - which remained stable through it all. In the mid-2020s, judges, police forces, and European customs officials agreed on one thing: drug trafficking poses the greatest threat to Europe's internal security.
In Rotterdam, local street gangs join forces with Colombians to build their empire. Driven by raging demand, the cocaine trade has triggered an unprecedented wave of violence.
The second part of this documentary begins in Europe, in the 2000s. It traces the rise of major criminals who came to the Netherlands as immigrants. These include Gwenette Martha and Ridouan Taghi, who became the main contacts for South American cocaine dealers. To defend the bosses' interests, their organization practiced unprecedented violence. Murders of lawyers and journalists, acts of retaliation with military weapons, and threats against the royal family shook the country.
Some surviving drug dealers ended up in Dubai, the trading paradise of the Middle East. From here, they continued their business via encrypted communication platforms. When police authorities succeeded in cracking down on these platforms in 2020, they thought they had found the Holy Grail: thousands of drug dealers were arrested, record amounts of weapons, cash, and drugs were seized, and countless henchmen who had been secretly laundering money were identified.
But the criminal gangs reorganized in no time at all—and became even more agile and mobile than before. Further proof of the criminals' resilience and procurement capabilities was the price of a gram of cocaine - which remained stable through it all. In the mid-2020s, judges, police forces, and European customs officials agreed on one thing: drug trafficking poses the greatest threat to Europe's internal security.
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AprendizadoTranscrição
00:27MSC Laredo
00:35Tens of thousands of ships sail the world's seas Today, around 90% of international
00:42freight is transported by sea In Europe, commercial ports engage in fierce
00:49competition to tap into this vast source of revenue And the Dutch are clearly in the
00:56lead The port of Rotterdam is Europe's gateway to
01:00global trade But this victory comes at a price
01:06That of organized crime Drug traffickers conceal their products in
01:12this constant deluge of goods International mafias, production cartels and street gangs
01:20join forces to create a system of exploitation and violence With market-driven logic
01:30At the heart of global trade The Netherlands has become a breeding ground
01:34for this new paradigm of organized crime Which is spreading throughout Europe
01:38And destabilizing some of the world's most stable democracies
02:09Rotterdam
02:11Over the past 20 years
02:12O porto tem sido um nómão para muitos, e é tudo por causa de uma comodidade, o cocaína.
02:21Essa é a história daquele nómão.
02:27Em 1990, o U.S. foi flutuado com cocaína da América Latina.
02:32Com os esforços dos Estados Unidos da América América e da colombiania,
02:37Pabllo Escobar's Medellín cartel, e então o Cali cartel, fell.
02:42O sistema tinha que reinventar-se.
02:46Trafícadores seeking new markets turned their gaze to Europe.
02:50No sul, estabilidade italiana mafias took control of the cocaína
02:54e its redistribuição to Spain and France.
03:00No sul, o porto de Rotterdam ofereceu melhor infraestrutura.
03:05All goods from Latin America bound for Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg
03:10and northern France passed through here.
03:14This drew hundreds of Colombian drug traffickers here to scout for opportunities.
03:20What the Colombians liked very much in this country,
03:23and why this country was so interesting for them,
03:26was the entrepreneurial environment that existed in this country.
03:31So, the fact that they could deal here drugs and be rather undetected
03:38because they were embedded, or they tried to embed themselves
03:41in this entrepreneurial infrastructure with the containerization of the business.
03:47And that was for me the most interesting thing,
03:50to see how the legal and the illegal world are connected.
03:56Argentinian criminologist Damian Zeich was the first to document this new influx of cocaine from Latin America.
04:05In the mid-1990s, seizures were still modest.
04:09A few kilos here and there,
04:11blocks of cocaine hidden in suitcases or sport bags,
04:14packets swallowed by drug mules travelling by plane.
04:20At this time, Damian Zeich was conducting his research in Amsterdam's Latino community.
04:25He spoke with Colombians imprisoned for trafficking and visited salsa bars and churches.
04:33Very quickly discovered that these people were not part of a kind of underground mafia,
04:40but it was kind of open within the Latino community.
04:45At that time, there were actually more than 400 networks in Cali already exporting cocaine.
04:50I know somebody that can sell, I know somebody that can buy,
04:54I put you in contact, I get some commission for that.
04:57You have development of cocaine trafficking increasing in the Netherlands,
05:05in the hands of an international club of networks.
05:16Then in 2000, the demand for cocaine boomed.
05:23Colombian criminals had to find local labour to handle logistics and run dealing spots.
05:29They recruited disaffected youths.
05:35Colombians didn't really like to do business with Dutch people.
05:38And with Dutch people, I mean white.
05:44So they'd rather do business with people from Suriname or with people from the Dutch Antilles.
05:51And there is Moroccans, second, third generation Moroccans from immigrants that are going to work here.
05:57And they also get involved in organised crime.
06:01And those groups, they mix and they mingle.
06:04And that's how that third generation of criminals become people of significance in the Dutch underworld.
06:21Colombian traffickers recruited people from organised crime circles, seasoned in bank and jewellery store heists.
06:28These so-called extractors sneaked into the port of Rotterdam, broke into the right container, retrieved the cocaine and disappeared.
06:43An easy job because like all European ports, the port of Rotterdam was easily accessible.
06:52One man in particular stood out among the extractors.
06:56Gwennit Marta.
06:57Born on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, Marta was a new kind of criminal.
07:03He represented the first alliance between Dutch street gangs and Colombian drug traffickers.
07:08A phenomenon that was unheard of in Europe until then.
07:13In Amsterdam, Gwennit Marta was a star. By the age of 20, he was already a gang leader.
07:20At boxing matches, his name was worn like a banner.
07:26He grew up in the street. He was just like this traditional, you know, criminal story, you know, becoming with
07:32like a small street gang and then slowly became a bigger criminal.
07:37He was known as the guy who, you know, the guy without a shadow, the guy who would not be
07:44caught.
07:50For Gwennit Marta, the extractor's work was so easy that volumes quickly increased.
07:57Marta soon figured out that if he diverted one or two shipments of cocaine, the Colombians wouldn't suspect a thing.
08:05This was how Marta's gang gradually became independent.
08:09They adapted, they changed the hash for cocaine.
08:13And of course, their business model exploded.
08:15They got very, very wealthy.
08:17The amount of money that is being made in the drug economy grows really quickly.
08:24Because cocaine is the most profitable drug.
08:30The sudden wealth caused the gang members to become ever more brazen.
08:35In the center of Amsterdam, street rivalries were settled with military-grade weapons.
08:45So there is serious unrest in Dutch society. What is going on here?
08:49Are we, is our way of living being, getting infected with organized crime?
08:56And that leads to a number of investigations and a number of kingpins being arrested.
09:03Not so much for the drug trade, but for the fact that they're killing off other people.
09:09So that drug economy still exists, but the violence is being prosecuted.
09:16Dutch authorities knew that tackling the violence without taking on the illegal trade was of little use.
09:22But how could they get to the gang leaders?
09:26Sometimes, it's a matter of luck.
09:33In 2007, Gwyneth Marta was arrested and jailed for money laundering.
09:39But money can open any door.
09:43This is Gwyneth Marta.
10:03In 2009, after a year and a half on the run, Gwyneth Marta was arrested and returned to prison.
10:11His associates, each eager to take over, declared war on each other.
10:18At a ship party yesterday and late in Amsterdam-West, there were two deaths.
10:23The victims are in a car with a false name.
10:26It's likely to be a liquidation.
10:29Around 11 o'clock, there were shooting incidents in the state of the city,
10:33especially in the Van Bossen Street.
10:35There was a car caught up with automatic lights.
10:40The outbreak of extreme violence in public spaces stirred up public concern,
10:46fueled by the investigation of two journalists and their best-selling book,
10:50Mokro Mafia, the Moroccan Mafia.
10:53Once the word Moroccan was used, the far right jumped on it.
10:57So I ask you, are you in this city and in the Netherlands more or less Moroccans?
11:05More or less Moroccans?
11:06More! More! More! More!
11:09We're going to arrange it.
11:11There's no such thing as Macro Mafia.
11:14It's not all Moroccans.
11:15It's just all kinds of guys with all kinds of different ancestors.
11:20Dutch, Moroccan, Turquês, Antilles, Surilame.
11:24E não é uma mafia como sabemos.
11:26É uma realidade que não existe.
11:30A gãs de Dutch usam um modelo diferente.
11:34Eles se concentram em operações de produtos-based e valoram talento sobre a identidade.
11:40Essa combinação forja fortes parcerias criminosas entre cartelos de produção e mafias de internacional.
11:50A nova modelo criminoso se derrubou na Europa na próxima década.
11:58Do Malmö, Suíde, até os distritos do norte de Marseille,
12:02as estratégias estão sendo replicadas hoje,
12:05espalhando medo e desigualdade.
12:17Gwennet Marta, o inimigo de deus do so-called Mokro Mafia,
12:22foi apenas o visível face de um fenômeno que foi muito além dele.
12:27Dezido de prisão no início de 2013,
12:30sua liberdade seria corta.
12:33Ele foi morto no May 22, 2014.
12:36O uso de desigualdade de violência no mundo se derrubou na Europa na Europa.
12:40A última parte, a última parte, a liquidação de Gwennet de Marta,
12:43a parte do internacional de droga.
12:46A explosão não foi morto.
12:50Para jovens, Marta foi um líder.
12:53It's like a volcanic eruption
12:56Of violence in the Dutch underworld
12:58In 2014
13:00When this all happens
13:0138 people get killed
13:04Because of underworld violence
13:06That's an absolute record
13:07In the history of Dutch organized crime
13:12By 2015
13:13Dutch police were at a dead end
13:15In their fight against criminal networks
13:18But that summer
13:19The first piece of the puzzle
13:21Fell into place
13:23Threatened by a rival
13:25A trafficker turned himself in
13:27To the police
13:28Officers showed him photos
13:30Of well-known Dutch figures
13:31Of the underworld
13:32To no avail
13:34Then the trafficker dropped a name
13:37Nobody had heard of
13:39Ridouan Tahi
13:41Who?
13:42Who is Ridouan Tahi?
13:45The police do not know
13:47At that time
13:48Who Ridouan Tahi is
13:50And they are so unknowledgeable
13:52To actually spell his name wrong
14:00When Ridouan Tahi's name was first spoken
14:03Nobody knew he was the kingpin
14:06Of the Netherlands' cocaine trafficking network
14:08A man both respected
14:10And feared
14:11And feared
14:12He'd built his business
14:14Around invisibility
14:15He was so discreet
14:17That even his associates
14:19Only referred to him
14:20By his initial
14:21Tee
14:24Born in a village
14:25In the Moroccan reef
14:26Tahi came to the Netherlands
14:28As a child
14:29And grew up in a working class
14:30Neighborhood of Utrecht
14:33At 20
14:34He traveled through Belgium
14:35Spain
14:36And Morocco
14:37Under false identities
14:41Tahi used his family's
14:43Established hashish trafficking routes
14:45From the reef
14:45To northern Europe
14:46And adapted them
14:48For cocaine trafficking
14:50For 15 years
14:52He operated in the shadows
14:53Building his empire
14:55Under the radar
14:56And all that time
14:59He was never
15:01Part of an investigation
15:03He was never arrested
15:04He was never convicted
15:05He was
15:06There was nothing
15:10By late 2015
15:11The second piece
15:12Of the puzzle appeared
15:13During a police raid
15:15In Amsterdam
15:16A weapons cache
15:17Was discovered
15:18Hand grenades
15:20Assault rifles
15:21Ammunition
15:23And dozens of cell phones
15:25Which were far more important
15:27To the police
15:28Than the weapons
15:28Because of the encryption
15:30Being used on them
15:32These phones
15:33Contain software
15:34Based on PGP
15:35The pretty good
15:36Privacy encryption standard
15:38Developed by a U.S.
15:40Engineer
15:40In the 90s
15:43This allowed
15:44Encrypted messages
15:45To only be read
15:46By the recipient
15:47And it was untraceable
15:50Back then
15:51PGP encryption
15:53Was considered
15:53Unbreakable
15:58Smartphones
15:58Change
16:01Organized crime
16:04That encryption technology
16:06Speeds up
16:07This whole drug economy
16:09And it means
16:11That if you are
16:12From
16:12You know
16:13If you were born
16:14In the Netherlands
16:14You can live in Dubai
16:18Have your team
16:19Of people
16:20Dealing with
16:21Cocaine shipments
16:23In the harbor
16:23And have your business
16:25Contacts
16:25In Colombia
16:27Or in Venezuela
16:28And you don't have
16:30To go anywhere
16:30Anymore
16:34The discovery
16:35Of the encrypted phones
16:36Came in the midst
16:37Of a series
16:38Of Islamist attacks
16:39In France
16:40And Belgium
16:40To counter
16:42The Islamic State
16:43European countries
16:44Imposed cross-border
16:45Cooperation
16:46Between security agencies
16:47The phones
16:49Seized in Amsterdam
16:50Were of utmost interest
16:51To both French
16:52And Belgian authorities
16:59In a whole series
17:01Of cases
17:02We've come across
17:03Phones that were
17:03Impossible to read
17:04And gradually
17:06We've seen the quantities
17:07Of these phones
17:07Increase in seizures
17:08In Belgium
17:10But also abroad
17:11In the Netherlands
17:12In France
17:13In Germany
17:14Etc
17:14Even in Finland
17:16Everyone's confronted
17:17With these unreadable phones
17:20And
17:22That finding
17:23Actually
17:23Leads to the question
17:26If we can decrypt
17:28These phones
17:30We can find
17:32Their secret messages
17:36European police forces
17:37Saw an opportunity
17:39They secretly deployed
17:41A team of hackers
17:42To decrypt the codes
17:44A formidable
17:45Seemingly impossible task
17:48Time was of the essence
17:49As the narcos
17:50Continued to operate
17:51In total anonymity
17:53Eliminating anyone
17:54Who came too close
17:59In 2016
18:01The flamboyant
18:02Crime blogger
18:03Martin Koch
18:04Became a target
18:06He'd been the first
18:07To publicly reveal
18:08The names of
18:09Ridouan Tahi
18:09And his accomplices
18:13Martin Koch
18:14Who was a crime blogger
18:15He was a formal criminal
18:17He had killed two people
18:18Himself
18:18But out of jail
18:21He tried to live
18:22A legal life
18:23More or less
18:23Legal life
18:24And he started
18:25A crime blog
18:27He didn't do anything
18:29A journalist would do
18:30Like looking for truth
18:32But he was the first
18:34To publish
18:34About Ridouan Tahi
18:43In his blog
18:44He'd recounted
18:45His adventures
18:46And the failed
18:47Assassination attempts
18:48Against him
19:14On December 8th 2016
19:17Martin Koch
19:18Was shot in the head
19:19As he left
19:20His favorite brothel
19:21On the outskirts
19:22Of Amsterdam
19:25His funeral
19:26Was a reflection
19:27Of his eccentric life
19:36His faithful escort girls
19:38Accompanied him
19:40And on his coffin
19:41Was a glass of champagne
19:54In January 2017
19:56The third piece
19:57Of the puzzle emerged
19:58One of Tahi's killers
20:00Turned himself in
20:01To the police
20:02And talked
20:05Nabil Bakali
20:06Detailed the organization's
20:08Methods
20:08And revealed
20:09Tahi's username
20:10The pseudonym
20:12The boss used
20:12To issue orders
20:15These interrogation
20:17Transcripts
20:17Were a crucial element
20:18In the criminal investigation
20:20That led to
20:20The Marengo trial
20:24Meanwhile
20:25Ridouan Tahi
20:26Was running his operations
20:27From his hideout
20:30He'd found refuge
20:31In a small paradise
20:34A place beloved
20:35By bankers
20:36Kleptocrats
20:37And billionaires
20:39Dubai
20:51A wedding in May 2017
20:56One of the members
20:57Of the Kinahan crime family
20:58From Ireland
20:59Was celebrating his nuptials
21:00At the Burj Al Arab
21:01The jewel of Dubai's luxury hotels
21:07The Kinahan's cartel
21:09Is a family business
21:10Passed down from father to son
21:12Drug trafficking
21:14Murder
21:15Extortion
21:16Money laundering
21:19On the day of the wedding
21:20On the day of the wedding
21:20An agent from the U.S.
21:21Drug Enforcement Administration
21:23Or DEA
21:25Infiltrated the ceremony
21:26And discovered
21:26And discovered it was also
21:27A business meeting
21:28For several criminal organizations
21:31Camorra boss
21:32Raffaele Imperiale
21:36Eddin Gacchanin
21:37A Dutch Bosnian trafficker
21:39With shell companies
21:40In the British Virgin Islands
21:41And Dubai
21:43Rico the Chilean
21:44Cocaine trafficker
21:45Between Latin America
21:46And the Netherlands
21:47And Ridwan Tahi
21:51The DEA named this group
21:53The Super Cartel
21:54An alliance between mafias
21:57Organized crime
21:58And street gangs
22:04The power of the Super Cartel
22:07Came to light in 2019
22:08When one of the world's
22:10Largest container ships
22:11The MSC Guyane
22:13Was seized in Philadelphia
22:14U.S. Customs
22:16Discovered 20 tons
22:18Of cocaine
22:18In the containers
22:21The shipment
22:22Had come from Chile
22:23Via Panama
22:24And the Bahamas
22:25And was actually
22:26Destined
22:27For Rotterdam
22:39I started off
22:4110 years ago
22:41In the port of Rotterdam
22:43As head of this unit
22:45The Seaport Police
22:46And in those days
22:4810 years ago
22:49We seized about
22:505000 kilograms
22:51Of cocaine
22:53Every year
22:54Sometimes 6
22:55Sometimes 4
22:56And then suddenly
22:58Somewhere 2017
22:59We seized
23:0122.000 kilograms
23:04So that's the first time
23:06We thought there's something
23:07Going on
23:08There's something
23:09Going to change
23:10The next year
23:11We seized 33.000 kilograms
23:14And that's the moment
23:15That we decided
23:16To find out
23:18What was going on
23:21Worldwide
23:21That the northern European
23:23Ports
23:23Were so popular
23:25For drug smuggling
23:27We did up to 150
23:29Drug investigations
23:30Every year
23:33But the coke
23:34Was still coming in
23:35And there was an increase
23:37So we decided
23:39We have to change
23:39Our way of working
23:42And we have to look
23:43And why is this cocaine
23:45Coming to Rotterdam
23:48Nearly 14 million
23:50Containers per year
23:51That's one
23:53Every two seconds
23:55Connected to over
23:561,000 ports
23:58Worldwide
23:58The port of Rotterdam
24:00Stretches more than
24:0144 kilometers
24:02In length
24:03With 100 kilometers
24:04Of keys
24:07The latest construction
24:08Is the impressive
24:09Maasflachta complex
24:11Where the trans-oceanic
24:13Container ships
24:13Dock directly
24:14On the North Sea
24:17This was where the police
24:18Were focusing their efforts
24:22So we learned
24:23That 98%
24:25Of all drugs
24:26Being seized
24:26In the Netherlands
24:27Come in
24:29Through one terminal
24:34Port authorities
24:36Discovered
24:36That the transport
24:37Company's
24:38Confidential access codes
24:39Could be easily obtained
24:40For a mere
24:41Five to six figure sum
24:48The other thing we learned
24:50Is that a lot of companies
24:51Import
24:52They use computers
24:54But they had one
24:56Business account
24:58And one password
24:59For everybody
25:00And if people
25:01Left the company
25:03They still could use
25:04The business account
25:05And the password
25:06That everybody used
25:07For years and years to come
25:09So if that's the situation
25:11You can imagine
25:12How easy it was
25:13To obtain
25:14Such a container release code
25:21Many security gaps
25:23Were found
25:23At the port of Rotterdam
25:24But 100 kilometers
25:26Further south
25:27In Belgium
25:28Lies an even more
25:30Vulnerable port
25:33Antwerp Bruges
25:38Europe's second largest
25:39Container port
25:40Has a crucial advantage
25:41For criminals
25:42It's Europe's main
25:44Trans shipment hub
25:45For goods
25:46From Latin America
25:50The problem of cocaine
25:56First became apparent
25:57In 2013
25:58But starting from 2016
26:00It became clear
26:02That seizures
26:03Were increasing every year
26:04Culminating last year
26:06With 120 tons
26:07Of cocaine
26:08Seized in Belgium
26:14With figures that high
26:16Belgium is number one
26:18In the whole of the European Union
26:19For cocaine seizures
26:24In terms of results
26:30That's not really what society
26:31Is asking of us
26:32They want us to stop
26:34These drugs from entering
26:35And so far
26:36We haven't succeeded
26:37That's why we had the idea
26:39Of scanning all the containers
26:45I suggested that the government
26:47Buy scanners
26:48And install them on terminals
26:49Right next to where ships arrive
26:51That way
26:52Criminals can't retrieve the cocaine
27:01But we still need to improve the barrier
27:04To prevent the shipments from arriving
27:10So we have the 100% scanning project
27:14Deployed at this moment
27:15Which means that in time
27:18We want to scan
27:20All of the drug risk containers
27:22Coming from South America
27:24And from West Africa
27:28So that's about 350,000-400,000 containers
27:32Where now we are scanning 36,000 a year
27:37The standard image is always like this
27:40So you can't see really much on it
27:43But of course our image analysts
27:44Have different tools
27:45The scan image showed
27:47That this pile was another density
27:50Than the other piles
27:51So that needed to be checked
27:52And then they found
27:54Half a ton of cocaine inside
28:1190% of the cocaine that comes to this country
28:14Goes further
28:16To new markets
28:17To new places
28:18Like I don't know
28:19Czech Republic
28:20Romania
28:21Whatever
28:22That they are the ones that have expanded
28:25So the Netherlands is now
28:27Selling more cocaine to more countries
28:30This is what shows the thing
28:39Gone were the people
28:40The days when extractors slipped away
28:42With just a few kilos
28:44The time of wholesale hubs
28:46And mass distribution had come
28:50This customs officer's face
28:52Is kept off camera
28:53To protect him and his family
28:56Bribing or intimidating customs
28:58And dock workers
28:59Costs the cartels next to nothing
29:02For drug smugglers
29:04It's become essential
29:10Because now they need to move
29:12Entire containers out of the port
29:14Using trucks
29:15Proper border crossing documents
29:17Warehouses to repackage the goods
29:19And delivery vans for distribution
29:24They also have an army of wholesalers
29:27To push the product across cities
29:29Towns
29:30And villages across Europe
29:44After months of investigation
29:46The final pieces of the puzzle
29:48Finally came together
29:50Dutch police had enough evidence
29:52To link Ridouan Tahi
29:53To six murders
29:54And four attempted murders
29:57But the man himself
29:59Remained at large
30:01Until he made the mistake
30:02That would bring him down
30:09In 2017
30:11Tahi had ordered the assassination
30:13Of another rival in Marrakesh
30:15But the hitman
30:16Accidentally killed the son
30:18Of a Moroccan judge
30:20The king's police
30:22Were also on the hunt for him
30:26That was a game changer
30:28Then Morocco changed
30:30The way it saw
30:31The Dutch Moroccan criminals
30:33Don't do this violence
30:35In our country
30:36Don't do this gunfire
30:38In our country
30:39And then Moroccans
30:40Co-operated very well
30:42With our police
30:43To solve this problem
30:48In December 2019
30:50Special forces raided
30:52A seemingly uninhabited villa
30:54In Dubai
30:54Where Ridouan Tahi
30:56Was drinking a glass of red wine
30:58In front of the TV
31:01He was handcuffed
31:03And arrested
31:10After his extradition
31:11To the Netherlands
31:12Public enemy number one
31:14Was incarcerated
31:15In the high security prison
31:16In Feucht
31:26Since 2015
31:27European, American
31:29And Australian police forces
31:31Had been cracking down
31:32On encrypted communication platforms
31:34And shutting them down
31:36Following Tahi's arrest
31:38In late 2019
31:39Dutch police reconstructed
31:41His call history
31:42And the platforms he used
31:47The latest one at the time
31:49Was EncroChat
31:50An encrypted communication network
31:52Its data was stored
31:54In a data center
31:55In Roubaix, northern France
31:57The French gendarmerie
31:59Managed to spread
32:00A computer virus
32:00Through the network
32:01And hack
32:02The supposedly unbreakable system
32:05The lock gave way
32:07And millions of messages
32:09Were decrypted
32:10That was really
32:12A moment that was
32:14Really magnificent
32:15For all those people
32:17Who were
32:17In that operational room
32:20At Europol
32:20When the first messages
32:21Started to come
32:23And you saw
32:24And you saw
32:24The criminal content
32:25That these really are
32:26International criminals
32:29Who are talking
32:30Only about
32:31Organized crime activities
32:33Smuggling drugs
32:35Killing people
32:35Laundering money
32:36Corrupting authorities
32:38And others
32:39So that was really
32:40Amazing
32:44In June 2020
32:46Following months
32:47Of phone surveillance
32:48Dutch law enforcement
32:50Raided
32:51Valves Plantage
32:52In the village
32:53Of 1200 residents
32:54Near the Netherlands
32:55Belgian border
32:56The police discovered
32:57Several containers
32:58Intended to serve
32:59As prison cells
33:00And even
33:01A torture chamber
33:24The only silver lining
33:26The torture chamber
33:28Had never been used
33:32But Europol units
33:33Were in for more
33:34Surprises
33:36Following the shutdown
33:38Of EncroChat
33:38The underworld
33:40Migrated en masse
33:41In 2020
33:42To a competing provider
33:44A Canadian platform
33:46Called Sky ECC
33:50Promised to be
33:51Ever more secure
33:52Phones sold by the company
33:54Were marketed under the guise
33:55Of protecting
33:56Freedom of expression
33:57And privacy
33:59At its peak
34:00It had 70,000
34:01Active users worldwide
34:03And nearly a quarter
34:05Of them were clustered
34:05Around Rotterdam
34:06And Antwerp
34:08And above all
34:10Sky ECC
34:11Was technically
34:11More sophisticated
34:13Than EncroChat
34:17We'd located the servers
34:19So we were recording
34:20Conversations
34:20That in principle
34:21Were encrypted
34:22For 18 months
34:24We logged data
34:25Without knowing
34:25If we'd ever be able
34:26To decrypt it
34:32In early 2021
34:34An update request
34:35Was sent to users phones
34:37But it was a Trojan horse
34:40Tens of thousands
34:41Of subscribers
34:42Fell into the trap
34:44This gave police access
34:46To the phone's
34:47Private encryption keys
34:49This marked the start
34:50Of the live phase
34:52As intercepted data
34:54Was decrypted
34:55In real time
34:56A stream of messages
34:58Flooded the screens
34:59Of Europol
35:00And the Dutch
35:01Belgian
35:01And French police
35:07Belgian special units
35:09Belgian special units
35:31Worked hours
35:32With an absolutely staggering
35:33Level of violence
35:34Incroyable
35:36After weeks of wiretapping
35:38And decoding
35:38It was time for action
35:44A massive international
35:46Police operation
35:47Was launched
35:48With customs
35:49Police
35:49Tax authorities
35:50And the judiciary
35:51Working closely together
35:53Over 10,000 people
35:55Were arrested
35:56In Belgium
35:57France
35:57The Netherlands
35:58Spain
35:59The Balkans
36:01And the Americas
36:02They call it
36:04Fighting the organized crime
36:05Scene
36:06So they also
36:07Got guys
36:08In southern America
36:09Middle America
36:11Other places in the world
36:12Targeting
36:13Arresting in Morocco
36:14They tried to dismantle
36:16The whole organization
36:17While dismantling
36:18The Sky ECC network
36:20Investigators also succeeded
36:22In striking a blow
36:23Against the super cartel
36:24After Ridouan Tahi
36:26And Rico the Chilean
36:27It was time for
36:28Raffaele Imperiale
36:29And Edin Gacchanin
36:30To end up behind bars
36:32Added to these arrests
36:33Were record seizures
36:34Of 90 tons of cocaine
36:36A historic success
36:38Without these investigations
36:40Egypt would still
36:42Crumble in darkness
36:43When it comes to
36:44The organized crime landscape
36:46How it is integrated
36:48In the private sector
36:50Public sector
36:52How extensive
36:53Is the corruption
36:54And violence
36:55How extensive
36:56Profits they get
36:57And how wide
36:58Global networks
36:59They have
37:01We found corruption
37:02At all levels
37:03In municipal administrations
37:05In internal revenue services
37:06In customs of course
37:08In the police
37:09And at every level
37:10In the legal profession
37:12I think that it is somehow
37:14Giving the picture
37:16How big are the organized crime groups
37:19And networks
37:19Which are operating
37:20And active in this area
37:22But it is also
37:24Giving the picture
37:25How dangerous
37:26These groups are
37:31We decided to focus on the upper echelons
37:36Of the criminal organization
37:37Which was now possible
37:39Because of the hacking
37:40Of Sky ECC
37:44Because otherwise
37:45Usually in well-organized
37:47Criminal organizations
37:48We never reach the upper echelons
37:50Since each level
37:51Is isolated from the others
37:58International investigations
37:59Into encrypted phones
38:01Have sharply advanced
38:02Understanding of how
38:03Criminal networks operate
38:06More and more emphasis
38:07Was being placed
38:08On the upper echelons
38:09Of the criminal underworld
38:17After nearly six years
38:19Of proceedings
38:20The Marengo trial
38:21Ended with a heavy
38:22And tense atmosphere
38:25From prison
38:26Ridwan Tahi
38:27Threatened to kidnap
38:28Crown Princess Amalia
38:30And Prime Minister
38:31At the time
38:31Mark Rutte
38:34And the terror returned
38:36The attorney
38:37Dirk Wiesem
38:38Who was defending
38:39Key witness Nabil Bakali
38:41Was shot dead
38:42Outside his home
38:43In 2019
38:46Just under two years later
38:47The famous journalist
38:48Peter de Vries
38:49Was executed
38:50In the heart of Amsterdam
38:52Ik sta natuurlijk toch
38:53In de arena
38:55En daar moet je een gevecht leveren
38:58Daar kom je niet
38:59Met mooie praatjes weg
39:00Daar moet je gewoon leveren
39:02Daar moet je voor staan
39:10We doen vandaag uitspraak
39:11In de zaken van alle 17 verdachten
39:14Als verdachten
39:15Hebt u lang moeten wachten
39:16Op uw volgens
39:18Maar dat geldt zeker ook
39:19Voor de nabestaanden
39:20Ook zij hebben lang
39:22Moeten wachten op ons oordeel
39:24Dat zal hun verdriet
39:25Zeker niet
39:26Minder hebben gemaakt
39:28Dat alles geeft dit proces
39:29Een gidszwarte rand
39:32Ridouan Taghi
39:33Kreeg levenslang
39:38On February 27, 2024
39:40The court delivered its verdict
39:43Life sentences
39:44For Ridouan Taghi
39:46And two of his closest associates
39:47And 190 years
39:50For the 14 other defendants
39:58At the end of this historic trial
40:00The Netherlands breathed
40:02A sigh of relief
40:04But a lingering fear remained
40:08Belgium, France, Germany, Finland and Sweden
40:11Were facing similar violence
40:13Linked to drug trafficking
40:16Despite this being a matter of internal state security
40:19Awareness was missing
40:21Even at the highest political levels
40:29So in terms of reaction
40:31And also support from political authorities
40:33For example
40:33When new capabilities are requested
40:36We can observe that public opinion
40:38Is extremely sensitive
40:39When it comes to terrorism
40:40And understandably so
40:42Given the victims and attacks involved
40:44It's because everyone feels like a potential victim of terrorism
40:48A bit like pedophilia
40:49In the way everyone sees their own children
40:52In the victims of pedophiles
40:55Paradoxically
40:58Paradoxically
40:58It's different when it comes to organized crime
41:01Yet in my experience as a magistrate
41:03And other specialists say the same
41:05The danger posed by organized crime
41:07Is far more destabilizing for our societies
41:10And results in many more potential victims
41:12Than terrorism for us in the West
41:15Were all victims in some way
41:21It's sometimes complicated for judicial authorities
41:24To convince policymakers
41:25I personally had to go before parliament
41:27And for the first time in my career
41:29Show images from the case
41:31Extremely gory images
41:33To shock senators enough
41:36Into giving the resources we needed
41:37To combat organized crime
41:39To be able to fight against organized crime
41:47Why do states struggle so much
41:50To recognize this threat to our societies?
41:54Because drug smuggling takes place
41:56In the shadow of international trade
41:59The port of Rotterdam has become a fortress
42:03Access codes have been eliminated
42:05And the docks automated
42:08There are no longer any dock workers here
42:19Almost inevitably
42:20The trafficking has shifted to smaller
42:23Less secure ports
42:25Like La Havre or Livorno
42:29The criminal networks
42:31That were completely dismantled
42:32Have almost magically reformed
42:35In almost the same way
42:37A never-ending story
42:41What we have seen
42:43Is that the so-called war on drugs
42:47Is actually more comparable
42:50With religious wars
42:51It's a symbolic war
42:53It's not a war
42:55That has any strategy
42:57To win
42:58In fact, the war on drugs
43:00Is not meant to be won
43:01The war on drugs
43:03Is to be perpetuated
43:05Is to be perpetuated
43:06Forever
43:10Today, crime and violence
43:12Follow a playbook
43:13Once reserved for armed groups
43:16Asymmetric warfare
43:19This model
43:20Conceived in the heart of Europe
43:22Is ushering in a new era
43:24With the gangsterization of the world
43:26And the start of a new fight
43:29And the start of a new fight
43:55Things that have been
43:55Who are allowed
43:55You know, where are your
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