The public prosecutor does not yet want to say for which murders she will prosecute Dutch Chilean Richard "Rico" R. (45). The prosecutors did, however, present PGP messages to the court on Thursday with new indications of assassinations. It remains to be seen whether there is enough evidence for prosecution for murders.

Rico is now only on trial for possession of firearms, money laundering and membership of a criminal organization that trafficked drugs. He was extradited for those facts by Chile, the country where he was arrested.


"Rico the Chilean is a leader in the Mocro War"
WANT THIJSSEN

AMSTERDAM

Richard R., aka 'Rico de Chileen', is involved in one or more liquidations in the criminal environment. The Public Prosecution Service states this on the basis of a criminal investigation. According to his prosecutors, 45-year-old R. is one of the three leaders in a major drug war (popularly called Mocro War) that has cost more than 30 lives since 2012.

Together with the fugitive Ridouan T. (currently the most wanted man) and Naoufal - 'Noffel' - F. (sentenced to 18 years in prison last spring), R. would lead a ruthless Dutch drug syndicate in which influenceable young boys become hired to liquidate counterparts. The amateurism of these contract killers has already resulted in at least ten 'mistreatments'.

So far, Richard R. is on trial for running a criminal organization, possession of weapons, drug trafficking and money laundering. But on Wednesday, during the third session in his criminal trial, it turned out that the Public Prosecution Service also wants to sue him for involvement in murder.

The accused was involved in several liquidations, according to OM

R.'s involvement in liquidations would appear from encrypted message traffic found on two seized servers of the telephone company Ennetcom. This controversial Dutch company sold PGP telephones - 'Pretty Good Privacy' - mainly to criminals who assumed that they were communicating outside of the police because of the encryption software. Partly based on this type of decrypted messages, R.'s henchman 'Noffel' was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year.

Henchmen
The indictment of murder requires permission from the Chilean authorities (who extradited R. on the basis of the current indictment). However, the prosecutors did not answer on Wednesday specifically about the question of which murders they think the suspect is actually involved in. It was said that the investigation showed that convicted drug dealer Mink K., who served his prison sentence and is staying in Lebanon, is "a target of this suspect." And at the end of last year, NRC Handelsblad published that in 2016, R. and his alleged other henchman, the fugitive Ridouan T., were considering killing prosecutor Koos Plooij.

Earlier the OM announced that decrypted PGP reports also show that the suspected drug triad 'Rico de Chileen', 'Noffel' and the internationally sought-after Ridouan T. worked together with Raffaele Imperiale, a leader of the Neapolitan mafia, who was three two stolen paintings by Vincent van Gogh have been recovered. The fugitive Imperiale escapes a prison sentence in Italy by staying in Dubai, suspects R.'s prosecutors.

R.'s lawyer, Leon van Kleef, calls the OM's investigation 'slow' and the research results 'not very concrete'. Among other things he wants to hear Mafia boss Imperiale, drug dealer Mink K. and 'Noffel' F. as a witness about their alleged relationship with R. At the beginning of March the OM initiates a video conference with the Chilean judiciary to talk about an extradition certificate by R. murder. Any permission will certainly take five to six months.

Detention
Rico de Chileen was arrested in Chile in October 2017 and transferred to the Netherlands last March on suspicion of drug trafficking, money laundering and possession of weapons. He is in custody in the Extra Secure Institution (EBI) in Vught. According to the OM, he is a flight hazard. A request from R.'s lawyer to investigate whether electronic monitoring can be an alternative to R.'s - already very long-term - detention, was rejected on Wednesday.