Surinamese businessman nicknamed 'Escobar' in his country and suspected of large-scale cocaine smuggling has been stuck here in the Netherlands since October. The Public Prosecution Service keeps President Desi Bouterse's party friend in jail here.
The Public Prosecution Service The Hague confirms this to De Telegraaf. It is the rice magnate Radj O. (55) who was arrested in the Netherlands after justice in Suriname issued an international investigation order in March last year. According to the judiciary in Suriname, he is behind a submarine with which cocaine is transported and a plane with almost 500 kilos of coke. Both were discovered on its site in the area of ​​Saramacca in March of last year.

The investigation and the arrest are very sensitive in Suriname. It's is a public secret that Radj O. is one of the major financiers of the NDP party of Bouterse. In the Netherlands, Bouterse still has to serve a sentence of eleven years for cocaine trafficking.