Spain accidentally lets drug cartel boss walk away who wanted to kill Dutch crown princess

A miscarriage of justice in Spain has freed a notorious cartel boss who is said to have previously plotted an attack on, among others, the Dutch Prime Minister and Crown Princess Amalia of Orange.

Less than a week ago, the Dutch King Willem-Alexander thanked the Spanish royal couple at a state banquet for the protection his daughter, Crown Princess Amalia, received in Madrid for a year after serious threats from the drug mafia.

The question is what that relationship is like today, after an extremely painful incident. Due to a procedural error, Spain has released the notorious cartel boss Karim B. – a leader of the so-called mocromafia – who had planned the assassination attempt on Crown Princess Amalia, but also Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The Spanish radio SER wrote about this.

B. was arrested in January during a major operation in Marbella, after a five-year investigation into money laundering. The Netherlands requested his extradition so that he could stand trial for his drug empire in our northern neighbors. A provincial court in Malaga blocked that request, because it first wanted to try the cartel boss himself. So message Politico about the facts.

Belgian victims

The Dutch authorities appealed, emphasizing that B. is one of the most wanted criminals for Interpol. They referred to his role in a years-long drug war across the continent, in which dozens of people died in Morocco, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Once again, the Dutch government received the green light, this time from the Spanish Supreme Court, but at the same time that Court had failed to issue an arrest warrant so that B. would remain imprisoned until after extradition.

The ‘escape’ is all the more striking because the court in Malaga agreed to a release on bail at an introductory hearing last month, subject to the payment of a deposit of 50,000 euros. B. – a billionaire with accounts and properties all over the world – promptly deposited that amount and disappeared without checking in periodically, which was the intention.

Security again?

B. may have fled to Morocco by speedboat. It will now have to be seen whether the escape means that the previously threatened prominent figures will again receive extra security.