"Who talks, who goes": how Ridouan Taghi's youth gang grew into a murder squad
Youth gang Bad Boys became the hub of the country's most murderous crime organization, led by Ridouan Taghi. The core of that gang proves how crime doesn't pay, in the end. Almost everyone is trapped or killed - by old friends.
Paul Vugts March 21, 2020 , 3:00 PM
It starts with hanging out and street trading in hashish, but hustling ends in large-scale hash trade, burglaries, arms trade and the bizarre phenomenon of deadly street racing.
They are roughly fifty boys and young men who, in varying composition, manifest themselves in the Utrecht region from the end of the eighties as the infamous youth gang Bad Boys. They hang out at the Cityplaza shopping center in Nieuwegein and fan out from there to Utrecht, IJsselstein, Maarssen and other municipalities in the area.
In the early nineties an unobtrusive boy joins the group: Ridouan Taghi from Vianen, then about fourteen years old.
He is a clever pre-university student at a school in Nieuwegein, which he will nevertheless leave without a diploma. He is small and petite and the, literally and figuratively, the bigger boys regularly beat him up or rob him of his starting hashish business.
The Bad Boys, meanwhile, are becoming an increasingly serious pest. With increasingly serious crimes, but also with those street races that are a life-threatening pastime among more problem youths.
Members of the Bad Boys are unlikely to tear recklessly over the Amsterdamsestraatweg in Utrecht ('the longest shopping street in the Netherlands'), over the Ring Utrecht and over a business park in Maarssen. They try to overtake trains. Tradition has it that there are eight deaths in those races - although that figure has never been formally established.
Ridouan Taghi's star is already starting to rise, but the time when his name in Utrecht and surroundings is only whispered or shortened to 'T' is yet to come. At first he is just 'Kleine', 'Nose' or 'Freggel'.
Joint past
The hard core of the Bad Boys consists of about twelve in the nineties. It is a multicultural group. The 'Surinamese': Mao R. (1975) and his younger brother Mario (1979) from Utrecht; Feno D. (1985) and Gerel Palm (1983) from Amsterdam; Jaouad (Joey) W. (1979) from Tiel; Gilbert Roemer (1979) and childhood friend and neighbor Timon 'Chico' Badloe (1975) from Nieuwegein.
The Antillean Sherwin S. (1975) from Amsterdam, whose younger brother Shurandy will shoot the innocent brother of crown witness Nabil B. in early 2018, is part of the group, as are the native Utrechters Levi B. (1987) and Gertjan de J. (1978) and the Moroccan Samir Erraghib (1979) from IJsselstein. And then there is the Ridouan Taghi (1977) from Vianen, born in Beni Selman, Morocco.
The Bad Boys continue to grow. The common past on the street has forged strong bonds of trust, crucial in the uncertain and suspiciously underworld. Taghi develops into an adept drug lord. He is allowed to exploit some of the hash lines that were once set up by his grandfather and is expanding them energetically. With fast speed boats, the faithful transfer the hashish from Morocco to the Spanish south coast. From there smooth lines run further into Europe.
The switch to cocaine follows steadily. Taghi's organization becomes extremely rich from that trade so quickly that it is too late when first competitors and years later the investigation services get to know which multi-headed monster has emerged.
The organization uses a structure of separate groups and groups for different tasks, so that street soldiers can link as little as possible. The betrayal, 'snitching' at rivals or investigation, is the capital punishment: who talks, who goes.
In the late 1990s, Taghi forges his organization together with that of the Utrecht Moroccan Saïd Razzouki (1972) and his family and relatives. For example, Taghi has a right hand in Saïd Razzouki and a left hand in Bad Boy Mao R.
Rotterdam research
It is the deadly key witness Ebrahim B. (1969) from Utrecht who is the first criminal to explain to the police on Saturday June 27, 2015 how badly those Bad Boys of yesteryear hunt rivals. The hash trader, ex-criminal in his own words, was followed months before by 'three Surinamese' who apparently traced him in Belgium, where he had sought shelter. They want to liquidate him.
Foreman of the trio is 'a negro' who according to B. has already carried out various liquidations for Taghi, including the (initially failed) murder of his ex-brother-in-law. By that 'negro' he clearly means Bad Boy Joey 'Book' W .. Because Ebrahim B. has withdrawn even further and is nowhere to be found, his attackers go after his friends - to come to him or kill them through them. to hit B..
The sudden, ultimately detailed statements by B. come at the moment that a large investigation into thieves of (flight) cars in Rotterdam led the police to Utrecht and the surrounding area. There, a new investigation, codenamed 26Koper, has identified a large group of suspects who seem to form a very professionally operating murder command.
Spotters (observers) meticulously map the corridors of targets. In an administration it later appears that there is hardly any cover for 19 million euros in income and expenditure noted for spotters, 'hitters' (hired killers) and (stolen) cars for observations or to flee.
In July 2015, the police find an awe-inspiring pile of war equipment in two boxes belonging to lessor De Storageman in Nieuwegein, including 92 firearms (38 of which are automatic), 9 shrapnel grenades and 13 bullet-proof vests. Elsewhere there are more weapons. Of five clearly identified targets that have been meticulously observed, two are liquidated after the apparent murder squad is rolled up.
Several murder commands
According to the prosecutors, the ten suspects in the large criminal case "Copper are driven by power, hatred, financial gain and the urge to climb the criminal ladder" and are prepared to kill victims they do not even know. There are three former Bad Boys in the suspects: prime suspect Joey W., Levi B. and Mario R.
Ridouan Taghi and Saïd Razzouki were not included in this process, but gradually it has become clear to the judiciary that they and Mao R. are hanging over several murderous organizations, of which the group from 26Koper was only one.
Investigation services are not least aware of this due to the millions of encrypted messages between criminals found on computer servers seized in Canada and Costa Rica. The huge mountain of text messages made legible is a bombshell of evidence because (also) the groups around Taghi 'speak' in chillingly cold and crystal clear terms in their email traffic about liquidations, because they think they are unobserved.
After years, the three leaders are still taken one by one: Mao R. (and Mario R.) in Suriname in May 2019; Ridouan Taghi in December 2019 in Dubai and Said Razzouki in February 2020 in Colombia.
Murdered childhood friends
In two unprecedentedly large, new and barely manageable criminal trials already in the start-up phase, she and more than thirty co-suspects will be tried for involvement in a lot of liquidations, failed attempts and never-executed murder plans - plus the membership of a murder gang.
Taghi, Razzouki and Mao and Mario R. are being tried in the Marengo case; Bad Boy Feno D. is a major suspect in Eris's related trial.
The charges in Marengo also feature a Bad Boy as a victim: Samir Erraghib, who was shot dead in 2017 in IJsselstein. He is only one of the three murdered Bad Boys. Childhood friends and drug traffickers Adjai Badloe and Gilbert Roemer were also wound up with brutal violence, in their old neighborhood in Nieuwegein.
Gerel Palm is on the National Investigation List because he allegedly shot two Rotterdammers on December 10, 2016 in a meadow in Noordeloos in South Holland. He was arrested in Suriname in March 2017, but was able to 'escape' from prison and has been a fugitive ever since.
The only one from the hard core of the Bad Boys who really manages to stay out of the hands of the police for a long time is Sherwin S. This does not apply to his brother Shurandy, who murdered the innocent brother of crown witness Nabil B. against Taghi's group.
Hard core awaits jail, imprisoned or murdered
Ridouan Taghi (1977)
Must fear lifelong as the main suspect in the multiple liquidation case Marengo.
Mao R. (1975)
Assigned a leading role as Taghi's adjutant in Marengo and fearing for life.
Mario 'Piet' R. (1979)
To be continued in Marengo as an extension of brother Mao (and Taghi) and for the 2015 liquidation of spy shop employee Ronald Bakker in Huizen, plus for the plan to shoot a bazooka at the spy shop in Nieuwegein where Bakker worked.
Jaouad 'Joey' / 'Book') W. (1979)
As one of the prime suspects in trial 26, got 13 years in prison for preparing for liquidations and possessing a huge arsenal of weapons.
Levi B. (1987)
In process 26, he also received a 13-year prison term for preparing liquidations and possessing a huge arsenal of weapons.
Feno D. (1985)
In the liquidation process Eris is accused of being involved in the liquidation in 2017 of criminal Jaïr Wessels in Breukelen, the order to liquidate the Amsterdam criminal Inchomar Balentien (when it failed), three attempts to liquidate and an attempt or attempt to bombard a house.
Gertjan de J. (1978)
Is now free, but always appears in violent cases and drug investigations.
Gerel Palm (1983)
Is on the National Investigation List for the double attempt to liquidate two Rotterdammers on 10 December 2016 in Noordeloos.
Sherwin S. (1975)
Lost himself, brother Shurandy 'Andy' S. was sentenced to 28 years for the murder of Reduan B., brother of Nabil B.
Gilbert 'Rasta Gilly' Roemer (1979)
Was liquidated on 24 June 2013 in Nieuwegein.
Samir Erraghib (1979)
Was wound up in IJsselstein on April 17, 2016.
Adjai 'Timon' / 'Chico' Badloe (1975)
Was wound up on November 28, 2017 in the same street in Nieuwegein where his friend Gilbert Roemer was murdered in 2013.
Prevention is a long-term process
The 39 municipalities, the police and the judiciary in the central Netherlands want to do everything they can to prevent 'young growth' from being lured into the brutal drug world - such as the Bad Boys.
Remco Mulder coordinates the Street Value (s) program, in which the police, the judiciary, municipalities, aid workers and many authorities work together to reverse the 'undermining' of neighborhoods by drug traffickers.
Complicated case
"Drug use continues to increase and supply continues to grow," says Mulder. “Young people think they can make money easily and quickly and do not see that they end up irrevocably in a world of excessive violence; of shootings, liquidations and murders of the wrongdoers through blunders. "
It is not only underprivileged boys in problem areas that end up in the trade, Mulder notes. “It is quite complicated to get the right guys in your sights. You used to have the stepping stone theory: step by step they made their wrong career. Now you also see boys who do have perspectives and choose that world. â€
Quick Repsonse
To see the right individuals and groups in a timely manner and to 'penetrate into the capillaries of neighborhoods', good neighborhood agents, youth workers and youth workers are needed. And active local residents, such as mother networks that sound the alarm in time when it turns out that a son keeps a Kalashnikov under his bed.
According to Mulder, it starts with speaking up in the neighborhood because 'people often want to, but just don't know how'.
The Street Value (s) program has two pillars: through repression, the parties try to 'dethrone' the neighborhood princes and viceroys' in the drug trade and show that the government intervenes if necessary - including through a Quick Response Team of the Law enforcement.
For prevention, the joint authorities want to cooperate 'smarter' and, for example, have the party with the best cards break through the culture of silence or have scientists carry out small-scale experiments to see how barriers can be built that keep young people out of the coke trade.
No quick fixes
Positive role models that enjoy respect are crucial. This can be the kickboxing trainer, the youth worker or the mother or the hairdresser; pivotal figures who explain that dealing is not normal. Think also of a boy who got out of the environment.
It is a long-term affair, but Street Value (s) has been allocated for years, and part of the roughly 8 million euros that the police, the judiciary and the 39 municipalities in the central Netherlands have received from the fund against 'undermining'. . "There are no quick fixes," says Mulder. "Boys should feel that there is no romance in drug trafficking, but rather a very dark shadow side."
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