According to sources in the nation’s security network, the answer is unfortunately, “No!”
News reports that wanted international drug dealer and smuggler, Jos Leijdekkers is hiding in Sierra Leone when juxtaposed with the recent discovery and arrest of a hundred thousand US dollars and suitcases of cocaine in a Sierra Leonean diplomatic vehicle in Conakry, Guinea, and last year’s imprisonment of members of a UK-based crime group for trying to smuggle 1.3 tonnes of cocaine, worth 140 million pounds, into the UK from Sierra Leone, we can see that Sierra Leone has become a safe haven for not only drug smuggling and dealing, but also for criminal elements on the run from the law.
Concerned members of Sierra Leone’s intelligence or security community including some from Internal Affairs say they are worried that Sierra Leone is fast becoming the safe haven, the destination of choice for many criminals, not limited to drug dealers, child molesters, human traffickers, homosexual offenders, and international criminal gangs.
“Is Jos Leijdekkers the only criminal fugitive hiding in Sierra Leone? Certainly not! Unfortunately he is the only one that has had the unfortunate luck of being videotaped and exposed. But there are many from other African countries, Europe, the Americas, Asia and others who are also hiding here. We know of some of them but they are all being protected from way above our pay grade to do anything about without disobeying ‘orders from above’,” said one of our security sector sources who spoke to nightwatch.
The Sierra Leone security operatives said they soon get to find out “about the arrival of yet another fugitive” after he or she would have high level clearance into many secretive affairs usually as the guest of someone that is highly placed in the nation’s ruling cabal and investing huge sums of money in local businesses.
“There are a lot of criminals, fugitives from the law from other places hiding here in Sierra Leone under heavy protection from some of our bosses. We have the Nigerians, the Ghanaians, East and Southern Africans not to mention the blacks and others from the diaspora who claim their origins from Africa. We also host other criminals who might have used a Sierra Leone passport from where they were being deported from or running away from. We welcome all these people because they are either tied to our leadership or other high ranking people and they are heavily invested in one or more leading companies in the country. Our businesses are eager for investors so when these guys come here splashing cash they don’t even check the background or origin or follow the money trail,” alleged one of our sources in state security.
Sierra Leone is an easy safe haven for criminality as the regime in power is alleged to be encouraging such elements to make a home here or channel their illegal wealth. Our sources informed that the reason why it is hard to winch such people out of Sierra Leone short of being kidnapped and extradited in the manner of a Hollywood movie is because they know how to enmesh themselves in a society via investments and close links with the powers that be.
According to our sources, Leijdekkers has regularly been in and out of Sierra Leone and that his outing came about in a roundabout way.
“Leijdekkers was at a New Year’s Day ceremony at the St Joseph Catholic church in Tihun, the president’s hometown, with the president a few rows from him when he was video recorded and posted on social media. The Dutch authorities identified him and that was how the connection was made. Reports we have indicate that Leijdekkers, who is Dutch, was sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison on June 25 by a Rotterdam court for smuggling more than 7 tonnes of cocaine. Dutch police have said he was believed to be living in Turkey until recently. But the videos and photos of a church mass in Sierra Leone on Jan. 1, 2025 show Leijdekkers, 33, sitting two rows behind Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, next to a woman believed to be Bio’s daughter Agnes, who is allegedly married to Jos. Dutch police informed us that Leijdekkers ‘has probably been laundering tens of millions of euros and hundreds of kilos of gold that may have been earned from the cocaine trade’. When you consider someone like Jos and link him to the president’s family and the allegations of this regime knee deep in drug dealing, smuggling and stashing smuggled money in offshore accounts, the rise of certain names in the drug dealing world from Sierra Leone, then you can see why we have become the best destination for all manner of criminals on the run,” our source in military intel informed us.
With the focus of the attention on the international drug smuggling network shifting from Guinea Bissau to Sierra Leone, it has become apparent that members of our business community and many in our government have been playing host to some of the world’s most wanted criminals, whose presence is not good for the image and reputation this regime is reportedly trying to build.
“If you are looking for a safe place to end your criminal vacation from the law and prosecution, then Sierra Leone is where you should look. We have the most complicit leaders who will secure you for just investing in their companies or companies of their choice and getting them in the loop of what you do. There are a lot of criminals here from outside this country, known smugglers, paedophiles and other sexual offenders, gangsters and other business people who are either hosted and protected by those high up or are introduced to them through middle men and women who might have known such people in the past. It is obvious that men like Jos Leijdekkers and the many others hiding here from south America, Asia and elsewhere know that as long as they stay put and keep dishing out the dollars, they will be protected from prosecution or extradition,” a member of the Ministry of Internal affairs informed this medium.
But the problem is not only with the government or government connection per se, but business people who are eager to make a killing (financially) handling such stupendous sums of money from those on the lam from the laws of their own lands.
A longstanding member of the financial or banking fraternity that commented on the connection between Jos Leijdekkers and the Maada Bios alleged that many of the nation’s top performing companies are tied to illegal investment schemes for not questioning the sources of their investors’ incomes.
“Our local banks and some big businesses have benefitted from such unholy types of investment opportunities from some of the world’s most wanted and celebrated criminals. Jos is just a kid that is now in league with many who have long been on the run but are hiding here in plain sight. These are the types you don’t see at nightclubs and events where they will be recorded like Jos. But if you think they are hiding or afraid, then you are mistaken. Such people let their money or the muscles they have that protect them do their dirty work for them. Yes, Sierra Leone is the new safe haven for the criminal elements of the world as we will not extradite you, and with us your money is safer than with your government,” the finance ace quipped.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Leijdekkers is one of Europe’s most wanted. In a Sept. 4 update on the wanted notice for him, Dutch police said he was “one of the key players in international cocaine trafficking.” Dutch prosecutors have offered a 200,000-euro ($210,000) reward for tips that lead to the arrest of Leijdekkers, the highest ever for any Dutch fugitive.