The following news report offers a Colombian perspective on the arrest of Saïd Razzouki, the deputy leader of the “Mocro Mafia” in the Netherlands. (Previous posts on Razzouki are here and here.) This story contains the added detail that the police shot and wounded Mr. Razzouki, though not seriously.

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for translating this article from the Colombian daily El Espectador:

One of the Most Wanted in the Netherlands Detained in Medellin

February 8, 2020

Agents for the DEA and FBI participated in the capture of Said Razzouki. This was the second arrest of members of the Dutch mafia, whose leader, Ridouan Taghi, was captured in Dubai in December 2019.

The criminal most wanted by Dutch justice, the alleged drug trafficker Said Razzouki, was arrested in the Colombian city of Medellin as part of an operation in which anti-drug units of the DEA and the FBI also participated, as confirmed this Saturday by the Public Prosecutor of the Netherlands. The arrest happened last Friday in an apartment building in Medellin, though the prisoner tried to flee and was slightly wounded by police gunfire from the Colombian authorities, who carried out the arrest.

Dutch police, who explained in a statement that hundreds of investigators and specialists had been dedicated “day and night” to the search for the arrested person during recent years, asked for extradition, although it is expected that the process will take some time. A reward of €100,000 had been offered for Said Razzouki, a record total for the Dutch authorities.

Besides the Colombian authorities, the investigation team also consisted of the Public Prosecutor, Dutch police, the DEA, and the FBI, though it is still not known how they succeeded in discovering his whereabouts.

Said Razzouki, 47, was the right-hand man of the other alleged drug trafficker and leader of the Dutch mafia, Ridouan Taghi, who was extradited to the Netherlands last December after being detained in Dubai, where he had been hidden in an area of chalets, paying rent in cash, and not leaving the house in order to go unnoticed.

Both men, who had been on the international lists of search and capture, are accused of ordering several murders in recent years, and according to authorities, Razzouki is the principal suspect in the so-called Marengo Trial, which will begin next March and which will prosecute him for overseeing five murders and several attempted murders.

In this judicial process, Said Razzouki is formally accused of leading a criminal organization which had the objective of carrying out murders, such as that of the well-known reporter who specialized in topics on organized crime, Martin Kok, whom they tried to kill in 2016 with a bomb placed under his car, near Amsterdam.

A total of 17 persons, the totality of the criminal organization known as “Mocro Mafia”, are now detained in the judicial process, in which several of those linked have died before being brought before justice. The brother and the lawyer of the most important protected witness of the case, Nabil B., were shot to death in Amsterdam. It is presumed that the crime was committed with the intent of silencing them so that they could not testify.