9 years in prison demanded for Mink 'The Thinker' K.: 'TV interview with NPO important evidence in this case'
In the appeal, the Public Prosecution Service demands a 9-year prison sentence against Mink K. for, among other things, importing a large quantity of cocaine.

Crime
Panorama Editorial
05 Jun 2025 | 14:15
Mink
In the criminal circuit, the 63-year-old Amsterdammer is known as 'Lange', 'De Denker', 'Knim' and 'Sappiemaster'. According to the judiciary, after the death of the notorious Klaas Bruinsma, he formed the so-called 'Delta-top' together with Stanley Hillis and Jan Femer - both liquidated - a group of criminals who were involved in weapons and drugs.

In 1996 and 2000, K. was convicted for involvement in the arms and drug trade, and in 2013 for cocaine smuggling. In short, the Amsterdammer played a prominent role in the Dutch underworld for years.

Arrested in Lebanon
In 2022, K. was arrested together with his son-in-law Najim Z. in Lebanon. He had been living there for a number of years. But according to the Public Prosecution Service, they were also involved in criminal activities. "The suspect is not a one-day criminal but a professional," was the statement in court last Wednesday, where a 9-year prison sentence was demanded against him. K. is said to be responsible for a cocaine laundry and the import of hundreds of kilos of coke. The evidence against him includes intercepted telephone messages from the hacked service Sky ECC.

In June 2023, K. was sentenced to 6 years in prison in this case. At that time, 9 years had also been demanded against K., but because the Public Prosecution Service could not sufficiently prove that a shipment of coke had been in his possession, the Amsterdammer received a lesser sentence. The court did find it proven that he was responsible for another, lost shipment of 400 kilos of cocaine. Those drugs were later accidentally delivered to a German supermarket with a shipment of bananas.

Interviews
In June 2023 - Mink K. had already been extradited to the Netherlands - Het Parool came up with remarkable news. According to the newspaper, two interviews given by Mink were important evidence in the case against 'The Thinker'. In 2019, the Amsterdammer was interviewed in Lebanon for the NPO production Narcostaat , presented by Danny Ghosen. K. talked about violence in the underworld, coke and the fact that he used a PGP phone. PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy, an encryption method that encrypts chat and telephone traffic.

According to Het Parool, the secret services happened to be investigating PGP phones at the same time, which were used by criminals, among others. And when they checked a number of phones of the Sky ECC brand after K.'s interview, there was said to have been only one in Lebanon with a Dutch user name. After further investigation, they linked Mink K. to the phone. In 2021, Sky ECC was cracked and the police gained access to all conversations.

According to the judiciary, Mink's language use in another interview with crime website Crimesite also corresponds to conversations held on the Sky ECC telephone.

K's lawyer wants his client acquitted, arguing that there is insufficient evidence that the encrypted phone messages were sent by K. No date has yet been set for the verdict in this case.

https://panorama.nl/artikel/642660/...w-met-npo-belangrijk-bewijs-in-deze-zaak