Dutch authorities raise reward for fugitive Jos Leijdekkers to record €2m

Dutch authorities have announced a record €2m (£1.7m/$2.24m) reward for information that leads to the arrest of Jos Leijdekkers, one of Europe's most-wanted fugitives. The offer represents a tenfold increase in the amount available as authorities seek to capture the 35-year-old convicted cocaine smuggler.

Leijdekkers, who is also known as Bolle Jos, or Chubby Jos, has been described by Dutch police as a major figure in the international cocaine trade. Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, includes him on its list of most-wanted fugitives. Dutch prosecutors said securing his arrest was their highest priority and that any information provided would remain confidential.

Justice Minister David van Weel linked the decision to increase the reward to the danger authorities say Leijdekkers represents. He said the higher amount was necessary because of the threat to Dutch national security, the country's democratic rule of law and the international legal order. The reward is offered for information resulting in his arrest.

In January 2025, Dutch police said they believed Leijdekkers was living in Sierra Leone under the name Omar Sherrif. Images have previously emerged that appear to show him alongside the country's president, Julius Maada Bio, and other officials. The account of his suspected whereabouts forms part of the Dutch effort to locate the fugitive.

Dutch prosecutors have sought his extradition, but Sierra Leone has refused to cooperate. That refusal prompted the European Union to cut some aid to the country. West Africa serves as a major transit point for cocaine being trafficked from Latin America.

Leijdekkers was convicted in absentia by a court in Rotterdam in 2024. The court found him guilty of smuggling more than seven metric tons of cocaine and imposed a prison sentence of 24 years. Several other police investigations involving him remain under way in the Netherlands.

He has also been sentenced to 79 years in prison in Belgium. Those sentences, together with the continuing Dutch investigations, form the legal background to the renewed appeal for information about one of Europe's most-wanted men.

Dutch authorities estimate that Leijdekkers has earned tens of millions of euros through cocaine smuggling. They also accuse him of money laundering and involvement in extreme violence, allegations that accompany the trafficking convictions as prosecutors pursue his capture.