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Crime Lord racks up another five years custody for forged document….his lawyers breathe a sigh of relief

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IN a packed courtroom, British crime lord Robert Dawes was for once not the centre of attention for the throng of black-robed lawyers sat attentively listening to proceedings on the edge of their benches.

Their interest focused on their two colleagues Joseph Cohen-Sabban and Xavier Nogueras, lawyers for Robert Dawes, who now faced their own jeopardy as a result of defending their client.

In February this year French prosecutors had called for a prison sentence for the two lawyers and a ban on them practising in the legal profession for 5 years. Their “crime” would have been to allow a fake document produced by Robert Dawes into the case file of his 2018 trial for smuggling 1.3 tonnes of high grade cocaine aboard an Air France flight from Venezuela to Paris in 2013.

Dawes had been convicted and sentenced to 22 years for the offence but during his trial, prosecutors discovered a forged document which would have prevented crucial bugged evidence being heard of Dawes claiming ownership of the cocaine. The document had been created by Dawes’ translator Evan Hughes at the behest of his crime boss and Dawes’ two lawyers sought to collapse the trial by using the document.

At issue was whether the two lawyers knew they were dealing with a fake document and if not was it still their duty to have checked it’s authenticity. For lawyers working the French legal system the case has threatened to make an already terse relationship between magistrates and lawyers even more fraught. “Are we to be expected to check the authenticity of every document produced on our client’s behalf”, was the unified cry among the Paris legal profession.

In the end their was a huge sigh of relief when the Judge in Paris central court dismissed the charges of “forgery” against the two lawyers. But while the two may have escaped jail time, Judge Isabelle Prévost-Desprez did not hold back in her criticism of the lawyers’ ethical behaviour.

Sentencing the two lawyers to a €15,000 fine each with a suspended three year ban on practising in the legal profession Prévost-Desprez declared Cohen-Sabban and Nogueras had been guilty of :”Serious negligence, disinvestment, a glaring lack of professionalism and even the commission of an offense to the criminal law protecting professional secrecy. They have seriously damaged the confidence that each litigant has in the legal assistants”

The judge then turned her attention to the case against Dawes and his Costa del Sol based sidekick Evan Hughes, nicknamed by the lawyers “whisky” for his penchant for the odd malt or two imbuing the 68-year-old with a ruddy scarlet face. On Tuesday neither presented themselves to hear their fate. Dawes had refused to come out of his Paris cell for the verdict and Hughes, who had refused to attend the hearing, was now “on the lam” with an international arrest warrant bearing his name ready to greet him.

Robert Dawes arrested in Benalmadena, Spain in November 2015 over 1.3 tonnes of cocaine seized at Paris airport

Prosecutors had revealed much of the attempt to pervert the course of justice through seized WhatsApp messages between Dawes, who had gained internet access in his highly secure prison cell via an X-Box console, and his collaborator Hughes based in Fuengirola.

Dawes, as the main beneficiary of the outlandish plan to doctor the documents, would receive the stiffest sentence of five years, added to his 22 year sentence. Hughes, who will now have to hand himself in or face the perils of attempting escape against an Interpol Red Notice, was given a four year prison sentence.

The relief on the part of the two lawyers now released from legal jeopardy was palpable. During the trial they had reluctantly admitted being intimidated by their client. As they worked to put a defence case together for Dawes, their work would frequently be stymied by burly threatening men visiting their offices on Dawes behalf asking why the case wasn’t moving forward positively.

Dawes, in particular, held a contempt for his lawyers bordering on hatred. He described the two in court as “Laurel and Hardy” figures who had put his case in jeopardy. He went further in WhatsApp messages to his associate Evan Hughes. At one point in conversation to Hughes he said that Nogueras “was full of bullshit”.

In regard to the 70-year-old Jewish lawyer Cohen-Sabban, Dawes wrote to Hughes: “Jews are only good for having their tails cut off. Hitler had the right idea, at least he had balls LOL”.

Hughes replied: “They are jerks but jerks can be useful.”

Dawes cut to the chase: “We need to stop talking about the law and find a way to fuck these bastards….we need to fix the truth.”

Their attempt to “fix” the truth came after their French lawyers gave Evan Hughes access to case file documents relating to the Spanish bug which caught Dawes at a Madrid hotel room in 2014 claiming ownership of the 1.3 tonnes of cocaine during a meeting about “business” with a Columbian and Venezuelan.

Hughes altered documents to show that a Spanish judge had ruled the bug in the hotel had not been authorised. The forgery was produced in court but after a weekend adjournment in the case French prosecutors received the original files from the Spanish judiciary which proved Hughes fake work.

It is unlikely that this will be the final legal episode in the criminal career of Robert Dawes. Later this year he faces a trial accused of ordering the 2002 murder of an innocent Dutch schoolteacher, Gerard Meesters. The truth and reliability of his statements in that case will have been severely damaged by this French case and no doubt his Dutch lawyers will be ensuring they don’t land in the same kind of hot water as their French counterparts.

Crime Lord charged with 2002 murder of Dutch schoolteacher after new evidence emerges

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BRITISH crime lord Robert Dawes will face a Dutch court after being charged with ordering a hit on a Dutch schoolteacher 19 years ago.

Dutch prosecutors made the decision after re-opening the case and completing a three year long re-investigation of the brutal murder in which innocent Dutchman Gerard Meesters was gunned down at his home in Netherlands in November 2002.

Nottingham-born Dawes, considered one of the top five drug smugglers in Europe by Europol, is currently serving a 22 year prison sentence over a record 1.3 ton haul of cocaine seized at Paris airport in September 2013.

One of Dawes’ footsoldiers Daniel Sowerby is currently serving a life sentence in the Netherlands for the murder. Mr Meesters was shot dead at his home in Groningen in November 2002. The murder followed the theft of a shipment several hundred kilos of cannabis belonging to 49-year-old Dawes. Dawes believed that Mr Meesters sister, who had been working as a drug mule for Dawes’ organised crime group, was involved in the theft.

But when Mr Meesters’ sister disappeared with a female companion also believed to be involved in the heist, Dawes’ organisation turned their attention to relatives of the two women, who were then targeted with threatening messages and phone calls. Just days after being given a phone number to call to tell the gangsters of his sister’s whereabouts Mr Meesters was executed in cold blood on his doorstep. Phone taps by the Dutch Police revealed the anger of Dawes’ associates over the theft of the drugs, with the two women being described in conversations as “Thelma and Louise”, a reference to the 1991 film about two women who go on the run from the police.

In 2018 Mr Meesters’ family directed police to what they believed was new evidence and asked for the case to be re-opened. As well as evidence unused in the case against footsoldier Daniel Sowerby, police and prosecutors have gathered new evidence which they believe gives them a realistic prospect of convicting Dawes. The new evidence includes interception of telephone conversations of Daniel Sowerby from his prison in Netherlands as well as new statements by significant witnesses.

The Dutch Ministry of Justice stated: “The Court of Appeal ruled in 2006 that the murder was committed on behalf of the organization. In the judgment, the Court spoke of a ‘murder committed on behalf of the organization, a murder of an innocent victim, as a means used by the organization. A cruelty that has hitherto been rarely shown in our country’.

“In 2018, the police and the Public Prosecution Service of the Northern Netherlands started a new investigation. This investigation into the originator of the murder now leads to the prosecution of the 49-year-old suspect, who was questioned in France in mid-December last year about his role in the murder. Based on the extensive investigation file, the Public Prosecution Service Northern Netherlands has today made the decision to prosecute the 49-year-old suspect.

“The 49-year-old suspect has been irrevocably sentenced in France to 22 years in prison for importing 1,200 kilos of cocaine. He has been incarcerated since 2015. The pre-trial hearing in this case is currently being planned to give the defense the opportunity to submit research wishes.”

Koen Meesters, son of Gerard, welcomed the news today: “This has been a long time coming. We are pleased that this person will finally face a court room more than 18 years after my father was murdered.”

If convicted Dawes could face a life sentence in the Netherlands without parole.

Crime lord Robert Dawes in the soup again

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British crime lord Robert Dawes is under further investigation along with his French trial lawyers over a mysterious faked document used in his defence at his 2018 trial.

Dawes, 48, and three of his French lawyers have been the subject of a probe into an attempt to pervert the course of justice during his trial over 1.3 tonnes of cocaine seized at Paris’ Orly airport in September 2013. The news comes from French newspaper Le Point in an article by Marc Leplongeon.

Before Dawes was arrested in late 2015 he had been secretly recorded meeting with a Columbian connection at a five-star hotel in Madrid. The meeting was set to discuss future shipments of cocaine into Europe with Dawes bragging he could get illicit cargo into virtually any European airport. During the conversation which was being listened to by Guardia Civil officers, Dawes bragged that the French shipment hidden in more than 30 “ghost passenger suitcases was his load.

After being arrested and the case against him disclosed, Dawes knew he had a problem with the recording. His answer it appears was to construct a fake document indicating that the Guardia Civil did not have the proper legal authority to carry out the bugging at the Madrid hotel.

Somehow Dawes and a close associate managed to insert the document into official sealed court documents. However, their plan was rumbled halfway through the court case when prosecutors made contact with their Spanish counterparts and were sent the original document which showed the Spanish did have the authority to bug Dawes and that the document produced in court by Dawes’ lawyers was a fake.

Robert Dawes discusses business over drinks with the Columbians at Hotel Villa Magna, Madrid

Investigators in France are continuing their probe into the matter which could result in disciplinary action against Dawes’ lawyers and more jail time for Dawes himself.

Investigators have already intercepted Whatsapp messages between Dawes and a senior associate which they say indicate the two cooked up the forgery plan. In other messages there are indications that Dawes sought to try to crash his trial and get an acquittal by arguing he was a victim of a set-up by French-moroccan drug smuggler who had turned informant.

This was the case of Sofiane Hambli, which caused a scandal in France and led to the dismissal of one of France’s most senior police officers Francois Thierry. Dawes even went to the effort of hiring Sofiane Hambli’s own lawyer for his case, which investigators saw as an attempt to co-ordinate a “story” with Hambli.

Dawes will attempt to appeal his case against the 2018 Paris airport cocaine conviction in May this year after he was sentenced to 22 years in prison. he is also facing a murder investigation in the Netherlands over his connection to the 2002 brutal execution of Dutch schoolteacher Gerard Meesters.

Something for the weekend

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I confess I do not come to this post as a passive observer. When reviewing Michael Gillard’s new book Legacy I should declare an interest and point out that the author is a friend and colleague who I have had the honour to work with. Nevertheless, it is exactly that position which gives me some authority to declare how much soul-searching Michael went through to get this mighty tome to publication; not least in terms of his own safety. The Osman warnings he has received are a testament to this.

Legacy is not just a stunning tale. It is also a forensic analysis of how the inertia of the UK’s most powerful police force coupled with a failure to recognise its own corrupt elements, led an organised crime group – parked on its own doorstep – to flourish. In time internal Metropolitan Police reports would document that David Hunt, a Canning Town gangster, had become “too big” for them to take down.

It was not always this way. Through the narrative, we meet a police officer and his dedicated team who did their best to bring David Hunt and his cohorts to book. Unfortunately for DCI David McKelvey, or “Mac” as he is known, he was not just battling the gangsters but his own employers. We learn that, while investigating and successfully collecting prima facie evidence of Hunt’s crimes, Mac is subjected to the kind of scrutiny and pressure from the Met’s Professional Standards Unit – the Ghost Squad – usually reserved for bent coppers. The result was McKelvey retired almost a mentally broken soul, though he has now pieced his life back together. The cases lined up against David Hunt were effectively “collapsed”. Hunt’s power and wealth grew and he remains a free man to this day.

What changed the landscape was Michael Gillard’s journalism for the Sunday Times. Through a series of stories, he spoke out for the victims of David Hunt’s crimes, exposing the reality of Hunt’s criminal endeavours to the public and eventually the full glare of a courtroom. As Michael’s articles began to damage David Hunt’s business interests the gangster became angrier culminating in him launching a libel action against The Sunday Times. It did not end well for Hunt resulting in the presiding judge declaring that Hunt was indeed head of an organised crime group.

It was after the libel action that my path crossed Michael’s when I wrote a story for The Independent revealing a £1 million loan which West Ham United owner David Sullivan had given to David Hunt at the end of the court case. There followed collaborations on a clutch of stories regarding the finances of Hunt and the stench of corruption which surrounded the man.

West Ham United co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan give the Hammer salute flanked to the right by crime boss David Hunt. Sullivan later lent the crime boss £1 million.

However, Legacy goes much further than detailing the rise of an organised crime boss. Gillard digs deep into the backdrop – the battle for the spoils of land being developed for the London Olympics and a factual nod to The Long Good Friday scripted by Barrie Keeffe, who gives Legacy his own seal of approval. Legacy, says Keeffe, “adds credence to the old adage that truth can be stranger than fiction”. The chapters on the stench of corruption emanating from the local authorities dealing with the London games are particularly revealing.

Legacy is an important book, which like one of Michael Gillard’s previous publications The Untouchables, sets a high bar for investigative journalism. More importantly, we should reflect that journalists carrying out this kind of work are facing threat levels never seen before in the UK. We don’t do this for the money for sure, the recompense for putting ourselves in the firing line is paltry. We do this work because we feel passionate about exposing the wrongs we encounter and to give a voice to those who otherwise would not have not been heard. Long may that continue. So a book well worth investing a few pounds in. But don’t take my word for it, grab a copy of Legacy this weekend and see for yourselves.

Crime Lord to face arrest over brutal 2002 murder

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British crime lord Robert Dawes, recently jailed in Paris over a 1.3 tonnes shipment of cocaine, will be quizzed by Dutch detectives over the brutal murder of school teacher Gerard Meesters.

French and Dutch authorities have confirmed that a European Arrest Warrant has been granted for 46-year-old Dawes after new evidence linking the crime boss to the murder has emerged.

Dawes under surveillance in Spain in 2013

The arrest warrant was granted on November 26 just weeks before Dawes was convicted for a 1.3 tonnes shipment of cocaine seized at Charles de Gaulle airport in September 2013. The move was seen as backstop position should Dawes be cleared of the Paris charges. Just before Christmas, after a two-week trial, he was convicted and sentenced to 22 years for organising the load on board a passenger flight from Caracas, Venezuela.

Under the terms of the arrest warrant, Dawes could be extradited to the Netherlands and face a trial over the murder of Mr Meesters in the very near future. A murder charge would take precedence over the recent sentence for the drug conviction. However, it is highly likely that any extradition to the Netherlands will have to be ratified by a judge in France.

It is understood Dutch prosecutors, after submitting a legal assistance request several months ago, are still awaiting authority from the British government to interview several witnesses in the case in the UK.

During the trial in Paris, evidence emerged of Dawes’ links to organised crime groups across the world and South America drug cartels over a 17 year period as well as his links another murder in Nottinghamshire in 2002 and the disappearance of a man whose body has never been found.

After the conviction National Crime Agency deputy director Matt Horne said: “Dawes was one of the most significant organised criminals in Europe with a network that literally spanned the globe.

“He had connections in South America, the Middle East, Asia and across Europe, which enabled him to orchestrate the movements of huge amounts of class A drugs and money.

“This was often facilitated by the utilisation of corrupt law enforcement, port workers and government officials.Despite the fact Dawes has been based overseas for many years, his offending has continued to have an impact on communities in the UK, particularly in Nottingham and the East Midlands.

“Dawes was prepared to use extreme levels of violence in order to further his reputation and take retribution against those who crossed him. Members or associates of his criminal group are known to have been involved in intimidation, shootings and murders.”

Death of a crime blogger

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IT WAS THE DAY journalists who follow crime closely in “the flat place” feared was always close but hoped would not happen.

Martin Kok, crime blogger and owner of the popular Vlinderscrime.nl site, was brutally shot dead outside the Boccaccio club, a brothel 20 miles from Amsterdam, as he sat in his VW car around 11.30pm last night in the small surburb of Laren.

According to reports from the club owner, Martin had arrived at the club a few hours earlier with a friend who was speaking English and who had been with Kok earlier in the evening. Two hours later after leaving, Kok was ambushed in his car by a lone assassin dressed in black wearing a black balaclava. Police believe he escaped from the scene in a BMW.

Martin, 49, had moved from a life of crime at a young age, which involved convictions for extortion and a 14 year jail term for manslaughter, to become one of the most read crime bloggers in the Netherlands attracting more than a million visitors to his site every month.

A writing talent he was not, but in the two years I and other crime journalists had come to know Martin’s work, it was clear he had become a significant thorn in the side of serious organised crime figures and the authorities alike.

His website had become a dumping ground for sensitive documents from the criminal underworld and Martin pulled no punches in naming and shaming people he believed were at the top of the organised crime food chain.

Often this would lead to litigation threats from the lawyers of those named or sanctions aimed at removing sensitive documents from the site which the authorities did not wish the public to see.

martin-kok_-horenzienzwijgen

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Martin Kok shot dead aged 49

He would drive a coach horse through the established legal decree in the Netherlands that criminal suspects should not have their full faces shown in photographs or full names reported in the media. Martin would name the suspects and refuse to place the usual black band redaction for the eyes of suspects, which he viewed as an unacceptable veil of respectability and censorship.

The content on his website would more often than not lead to tensions and sometimes to death threats. In the past two years, those threats became more real when his house and car were shot up on one occasion and then earlier this year an explosive device was placed underneath his vehicle.

However, the reality of these threats did nothing to deter Martin, despite his role as a father of a three-year-old. The threats simply added fuel to his fire.

He said in July this year: “I take it as a compliment when someone puts me on a death list.”

Lunchtime on the day of his death he met with a number of the Netherlands major crime journalists from Het Parool, Panorama and other mainstream media,  to discuss ways in which they could all collaborate in a more meaningful way towards covering the current organised crime war going on in the Netherlands and further afield.

He was not everyone’s favourite and, without a doubt, some of his postings were reckless beyond belief. Some articles such as those involving significant Dutch-Moroccan crime bosses displayed a bravado bordering on suicidal. He often posted without checking basic facts and many quarters of the media believed he was a renegade to treat with extreme caution. Yet he was certainly valued at times by the crime news establishment, his material often followed up and some of those within the established crime reporting milieu could not have written their more measured and detailed pieces without the documents and contacts which Martin often provided.

How will Martin Kok’s assassination be seen in the criminal environment? There will be those that say his own recklessness killed him but really no-one knows what the motive is. He made enemies before he became a blogger and afterwards. Worryingly, there is now a clear escalation of tension and fear among those journalists who knew Martin and whose job is to write about crime in the Netherlands.

After unheeded warnings to Martin to tone things down, many feared this day was inevitable. It may be too much to hope that the reporting is not blunted by the real fear that mainstream journalists will be targeted now for exposing organised crime.

Wouter Laumans, the respected co-author of Mocro-Maffia, told me many months ago during one period when Martin Kok’s life was under threat and his website under much discussion: “What can you tell him, he knows the danger, he is from that world. No matter what anyone says to him he will carry on.”

Martin Kok desperately wanted to be perceived as a journalist with “juicy information” as he put it. But the truth was he didn’t appreciate any journalistic rulebook. His uploading of gigabytes of files on the Holleeder case which hadn’t been disclosed, was like a Wikileaks blizzard of unchecked and potentially sensitive witness information. His last message via Whatsapp last night just a few hours before he died was full of dark irony. It read simply: “A beautiful life, a journalist.” Whether or not the passage of time will place him in that category remains to be seen. His life along with his dream job ended violently. There was no beauty at the end.

Footsoldiers of crime boss jailed after police dismantle local cell

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A CRIMINAL network working under the orders of organised crime boss Robert Dawes has been jailed following a joint police investigation into the large-scale movement of cocaine and amphetamines.

Dawes trusted footsoldiers, Christopher Turton and Dale Wright, were part of a Nottinghamshire cell working for the Spanish-based crime boss. Dawes, a former Sutton-in-Ashfield resident, is currently in custody in France awaiting trial for a 1.3 tonnes load of cocaine seized at Paris’ Charles De Gaulle airport in September 2013.

Christopher Turton (left) and Dale Wright were footsoldiers of Robert Dawes

Christopher Turton (left) and Dale Wright were footsoldiers of Robert Dawes

This week, Turton and Wright were among 13 people convicted of drugs offences and money-laundering. Turton received a 10 year sentence and Wright, previously a target of police investigating Robert Dawes, received a 6 year and 8 month sentence

Police discovered Turton, had himself been subjected to a punishment shooting after sending a courier with more than £100,000 down the M1 only to be stopped by Leicestershire police officers working on behalf of the East Midlands Serious Crime Unit (EMSOU) and the National Crime Agency (NCA).
The man they stopped was Robert Durant, also of Sutton-in-Ashfield, who was couriering £100,000 to a man in Milton Keynes.

The group used Blackberry encrypted mobile phones and secret compartments in vehicles to launder cash and supply Class A and B drugs around the country, stretching from Scotland to London.

At Stafford Crown Court this week 11 men and two women were sentenced to a total of more than 40 years for the parts they played in one of the illicit operations.

Enquiries into this group began in January 2014, when Nottinghamshire Police flagged-up Christopher Turton and Dale Wright to serious and organised crime specialists at EMSOU.

According to Detective Inspector Andy Jones, of EMSOU, “This was a sophisticated and well-organised crime group which utilised encrypted mobile phones, vehicle concealments and unregulated and untraceable cash transfers.

“Turton and Wright were pivotal in this network, organising and arranging the supply of drugs and the transfer of huge amounts of cash on behalf of an international organised crime group. I cannot emphasise enough that the street value of the seized drugs is exponentially more than what we have valued them at in the prosecution case”

Over eight months detectives evidenced cocaine, amphetamine and cash being moved around the East Midlands, north to Manchester, through to Scotland, south to Warwickshire and Birmingham, and on to Milton Keynes, Banbury and London.”

In order to physically transfer their drugs and cash, Turton and Durant arranged for three specialists, a Brazilian and two Spaniards, to be flown in from the continent to adapt a number of vehicles. These secret compartments were so well hidden, they were only detectable by X-ray.

Rob Hickinbottom, regional commander of the National Crime Agency added: “Dawes was extradited to France in connection with the seizure of 1.3 tonnes of cocaine hidden in suitcases on an Air France flight, and we are continuing to support the French authorities ahead of his trial.”

The proceedings of that trial in Paris will be very interesting.

Reports: Dutch-Moroccan associate of Robert Dawes gunned down

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DUTCH media were last night reporting the brutal death of yet another former associate of Robert Dawes.

All in One bar near Benahavis where "Scarface" was shot dead

All in One bar near Benahavis where “Scarface” was shot dead

The victim, who has yet to be formally identified, is believed to be Samir Bouyakhrichan, 36, known by the nickname “Scarface” within the Dutch underworld. He was gunned down around 1.50am yesterday (Thursday) by two assailants at the All in One bar in Monte Halcones, Benahavis in the mountains just four miles inland from the Marbella coastline.

Bouyakhrichan, who had real estate interests in the area through Albina Properties 2009 Sl, was apparently sat with a group of six associates when the two gunmen approached. As he attempted to flee his table the men opened fire. He was hit several times in the back before being shot in the head as he lay on the ground, according to eye witnesses.

“Scarface” was known to be a highly significant player in the Dutch-Moroccan mafia and had previously been arrested over the tragic shooting of 12-year-old Danny Gubbels in 2010 in Breda, Netherlands. Two other men, originally from Leeds, and another from Amsterdam, eventually stood trial for the killing. Leeds born 28-year-old, Tyrone Lando Gillard, is currently serving 16 years after being convicted of manslaughter alongside Dutchman Marcellino Fraser. Dutch investigators were unable to amass enough evidence to identify the five other gunmen or the men who ordered the shooting.

Samir Bouyakhrichan was, according to sources, involved in the Dutch cocaine and hashish trade at the highest level but also had business connections in Morocco, Spain and United Arab Emirates, according to sources. The motive for the murder remains unclear, yet clearly well-planned.

Just three days before the murder of Bouyakhrichan, Spanish police had also arrested and detained two men in the vicinity of the Benhavis crime scene, carrying firearms and silencers. It is not known if they were linked to an earlier plan to execute the Dutch-Moroccan national. A 63-year-old Spaniard and 32-year-old Lithuanian, who have extensive criminal records, remain in custody. Guardia Civil investigators have begun a nationwide hunt for the two gunmen who assassinated Scarface.

Investigators in Netherlands will be taking a keen interest in the Spanish murder investigation following a series of recent assassinations in Amsterdam including the death of notorious gangster, Gwenette Martha, in the city in May this year.

At least 13 murders and several failed attempted assassinations have now been linked to large shipments of cocaine being stolen by rival gangs and also intercepted by the authorities in the port of Antwerp. A brutal gang war between two rival Dutch based gangs has been waged over the thefts over the past two years resulting in a river of blood flowing through the Netherlands and beyond.

Martha had been involved with British gangster Robert Dawes as far back as 2002 when he was sent to deliver a phone number to Dutch school teacher Gerard Meesters demanding that he phone the number and tell the gangsters the whereabouts of his sister Janette, who the villains believed had stolen a huge load of hashish. Mr Meesters was shot dead at his home in Groningen four days later sparking a Dutch police investigation which led to Daniel Sowerby,a Dawes Cartel foot soldier, being jailed for life for the shooting.

Bouyakhrichan has previously been linked to the Dawes Cartel over a large cargo of cocaine which was stolen from Antwerp in 2010 leading to the tragic shooting of Danny Gubbels, some of whose family members were believed to be behind the theft. Two of the seven gunmen convicted, including Tyrone Gillard, 26 at the time and originally from Leeds, were sentenced to 16 years in prison.

“Scarface” had also been linked to £300 million worth of cocaine bound for Netherlands but seized in Southampton aboard the 65ft luxury cruiser Louise in June 2011, discovered after a tip off to the French authorities who informed the British authorities. It is the largest seizure of cocaine in the UK to date.

Around two years ago Bouyakhrichan reportedly moved himself and his young family to the safety of Dubai fearing the Netherlands had become a dangerous place for him to be, although he regularly travelled to Spain. There he invested in property and companies involved oil and fuel trade. In recent times his star had waned, according to sources, not least with fellow investors.

Some observers believe Scarface had made a number of enemies after a series of cocaine shipments, believed to be up to 12,000 kilos, failed to materialise or were intercepted by the authorities. One investment, which led to corrupt  Belgian customs officer Tim Deelen being jailed for 14 years, was seized by authorities in 2012 in Anwterp weighed in at 8.5 tonnes of cocaine packed into bananas from Ecuador.

 

Dutch crime lord linked to Dawes cartel gunned down in Amsterdam

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A MAJOR figure in the Dutch underworld was gunned down last night in a surburb of Amsterdam.

Gwenette Martha, 40, died in a hail of bullets after three gunmen dressed in balaclavas unleashed a volley of automatic fire as the Dutch crime lord was walking in the Amstelveen district of Amsterdam in the mid-evening. The gunmen may have sped off in a BMW which was later found burnt out, according to some reports. Martha was pronounced dead at the scene, punctured by at least 80 bullet wounds, according to reports in the Dutch media http://bit.ly/1kpsf7x . The assassins were believed to have used AK-47 automatic rifles in the attack.

Gwenette Martha dead at 40

Gwenette Martha dead at 40

The scene of Martha's execution

The scene of Martha’s execution

Martha, had been linked to the Dawes cartel, headed by British criminal Robert Dawes, as far back as 2002. Martha was one of five men who visited the home of 52-year-old Gerard Meesters in November 2002 to threaten the school teacher to tell them the whereabouts of his sister Janette Meesters. The Dawes Cartel believed that Janette and a friend had stolen a large quantity of drugs belonging to Robert Dawes. A few days after the encounter with Martha, Mr Meesters, a complete innocent who had not been in contact with his sister for years, was shot dead in the hallway of his home in Groningen, Netherlands. Dawes Cartel member, Daniel Sowerby, was jailed for life for the murder and Martha received a prison sentence for supplying heroin to Sowerby and for threats against Mr Meesters in the days before the murder.For the past year the lucrative cocaine and heroin trade has been been at the fulcrum of an Amsterdam gang power battle; it has culminated in a series of fatal tit for tat shootings involving two major groups of criminals. One group was headed by Martha supported by a biker gang. Martha had been suspected of ordering the murder of two rivals in 2012 linked to a shadowy Moroccan mafia group. A series of thefts of large shipments of cocaine are believed to have increased tensions between the two groups. In December last year Martha himself survived an assassination attempt when a gunman jumped out at him but the assailant’s weapon jammed.

Martha himself had only recently been released by police after being arrested in April over the possession of two firearms. Observers and law enforcement in Netherlands fear the death of Martha may now provoke an escalation in the war which could see the recent bloody drug war in the country reach unprecedented levels of violence.

Video showing the aftermath of Gwenette Martha’s death.

The mystery of the 19-year-old unsolved murder of city taxi driver

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ETHSHAM “Shami” Ghafoor was a popular, outgoing man who made friends easily and was well respected within the cabbie fraternity.

What is also clear is that the young Asian taxi driver was troubled by something that he kept from his family, a secret which perhaps holds the key to why he was executed in a cold, clinical and brutal fashion in the early hours of a cold dark November morning in a lonely car park 19 years ago.

His work as a driver often took him on relatively arduous journeys, a long way from the taxi pitch outside Nottingham’s Victoria Shopping Centre. A round trip to Manchester, a job down in London, an airport pick up now and again. These were all journeys he took in his stride. Despite the long hours he worked, nothing seemed to get Shami down.

Ethsham Ghafoor brutally murdered aged 26

Ethsham Ghafoor brutally murdered aged 26

But as the autumnal evenings drew in towards the middle of November 1994 in his hometown of Nottingham, something was clearly playing on his mind. His family and his closest friends noticed his bright and breezy demeanor had been replaced by a troubled soul at times. Shami brushed off their concerns, he wasn’t the sort of man to burden others with his own problems.

 

Little is known about Shami’s movements on November 21 and 22 1994. He was spotted at a petrol station at the junction of Mapperley Plains and Wooodthorpe Drive, just after midnight. Then, at about 4.30 am, a milkman doing his early rounds on November 22 spotted Shami black and white Ford Sierra car in a desolate car park near playing fields off Lambley Lane.

The scene of Shami's execution sometime between 1am and 4am on November 22 1994

The scene of Shami’s execution sometime between 1am and 4am on November 22 1994

As the milkman drew closer he could see that there was a man in the car, who at first seemed asleep. The full horror of his discovery became apparent as he got to the car, 26-year-old Shami had been shot dead. He had two gunshot wounds from what police were later able to ascertain was a semi-automatic handgun. The murder weapon has never been recovered.

Former Detective Superintendent Chris Barnfather of Nottinghamshire Police said during a re-investigation of the murder in 2004: “It bore all the hallmarks of an execution. Mr Ghafoor had been shot once to the side, to incapacitate him, and then between the eyes. I do not believe robbery was a motive.”

Shami had a somewhat unconventional domestic life. He was married with a child on the way, but he also had a lover with whom he had another child. While this may have been unorthodox, Shami was not leading a double life, on the domestic front at least. Both partners were aware of the other as were Shami’s family and it was not a source of conflict for either. Yet somehow, in the absence of hard evidence, it lead police down a path which resulted in Shami’s lover being wrongly suspected of hiring a hitman to murder Shami. The pursuit of this motive without any hard evidence led to the Crown Prosecution Service rightly dropping the charges against her in October 1995.

Since then there have been no arrests in connection with Shami’s death and as the years have passed the trail appeared to have gone cold. One of the keys to unlocking the mystery may well lie in those long journeys Shami undertook in his black and white Ford Sierra car outside Nottinghamshire, other significant clues may lie in Shami’s movements in the weeks leading up to the murder and the crucial missing three hours when Shami was last seen at the petrol station to the discovery of his body.

Now a fresh pairs of eyes from Nottinghamshire Police are being trained on the mystery of Ethsham “Shami” Ghafoor’s shocking death. In tandem with the cold case review of the murder, Shami’s family have launched a Facebook page on the 19th anniversary of Shami’s deathin the hope that they can jog the memories of people.

Detective Chief Inspector Tony Heydon, who is leading the cold case review, said: “Shami was part of a very close-knit family, and his death has left each and every one of them devastated over the years. We are working closely with the family and supporting their public appeal which is using social media.

“Since 1994, the ways people provide information or communicate has changed significantly, and it may be that there are people out there who know who is responsible for Shami’s murder but have never come forward before. Now is the time to put Shami’s family first and help them find closure. Their Facebook group shows just how desperate for justice they are, and if you know anything you could help them.”

The Facebook page focusing of Shami’s murder and the impact his death has had on his family can be found at http://www.facebook.com/justiceforEthshamShamiGhafoor.

Just as people will remember where they were when they heard John F Kennedy was shot dead on November 22 1963 in Dallas, there are people who will never forget where they were when they heard that Ethsham “Shami” Ghafoor had been shot dead on November 22 1994 in Nottingham.

Shami’s family are appealing for people to visit their Facebook page and for anyone with any information to contact the incident room on 0115 844 6912 or ring Crimestoppers, in confidence, on 0800 555 111.