Ridouan Taghi had many code words for “murder.” He sometimes spoke of “letting someone sleep” or wanting to “deactivate” someone in the encrypted messages he sent to confidants that were reviewed by investigators. But it appears that they always meant the same thing: Taghi wanted to kill someone for getting in the way of his drug business.
Investigators believe the Dutchman with Moroccan roots was involved in the cocaine trade, and that he rose to become one of the country’s biggest smugglers. Taghi has been in prison since December 2019, and for years, he has been considered “public enemy No. 1” in the Netherlands. Prosecutors accuse him of having run his criminal organization “like a well-oiled machine.”
But the killings believed to be linked to Taghi didn’t stop with his arrest.
On Tuesday evening, Peter R. de Vries, the country’s most famous journalist, left a television studio in downtown Amsterdam, where he had appeared at 6:30 p.m. on a show called “RTL Boulevard.” De Vries walked down Lange Leidsedwarstraat toward the public parking lot where he had left his car. Then shots rang out. According to media reports, five bullets were fired at de Vries, with one hitting him in the head. He collapsed and lay motionless on the ground. De Vries is still fighting for his life in the hospital.
