Key figures include Jos Leijdekkers, who is also known as 'Bolle Jos', Dutch for 'Tubby Jos'
One of the biggest drug trials in recent years got underway this week in the court of Tongeren, Limburg.
Numerous criminals are facing charges relating to membership of a criminal organisation, drug trafficking, money laundering and violations of arms legislation.
Also on trial as part of the 'Costa' investigation, in which 55 defendants and several companies will be questioned, is Jos Leijdekkers, who was once on the 'EU Most Wanted List' and Willy Van Mechelen, a former officer of the state police (gendarmerie in French and rijkswacht in Dutch).
They have been accused of importing at least 25 tonnes of South American cocaine through the Port of Antwerp.
It is believed that they laundered the estimated €3.5 billion they made through the purchase of gold, luxury watches and real estate.
The various arrested defendants are currently being held in custody in various prisons, including Hasselt and Dendermonde, according to the Brussels Times, as 12 court days have been scheduled to hear the case.
The trial was delayed by more than 45 minutes on Monday morning after the prison transport was stuck in traffic.
Almost all the ringleaders are present with their lawyers in the assize courtroom of the Tongeren court, Belga News Agency reported.
However, key figures including Leijdekkers, who is also known as 'Bolle Jos', (Dutch for 'Tubby Jos') and a man only referred to as Anthony H, remain at large.
Last month it emerged that Leijdekkers, who has been on the run for at least two years, had popped up in Sierra Leone.
The Dutch national, who has been on the run for at least two years, was sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison in June last year by a Rotterdam court.
In September Dutch police said he remained missing and offered a €200,000 reward for any information leading to his arrest.
Leijdekkers, the most wanted person in the Netherlands, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in absentia by the Antwerp correctional court for ordering the failed theft of 10 tonnes of cocaine.
The 'Costa' case investigation began in 2019, with the discovery of a container coming from Costa Rica that was destined for a company in Maasmechelen, also in the province of Limburg.
Hidden among tropical wood, investigators found 2,800 kilos of cocaine. This prompted a major investigation by the Federal Judicial Police.
Eight investigators spent the following year tracking gang members who had been using encrypted telephones.
However, after the Sky-ECC telephones were later cracked, investigators gained a “great deal of additional information,” according to the Times.
Police then raided dozens of addresses in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom in September and October 2019 and seized €1.3 million in cash, €700,000 in bank accounts, shares, weapons, gold, paintings, expensive watches and 40 luxury cars.
At the end of October 2020, an even bigger drug haul of 11,500 kilos of cocaine was intercepted in a container of scrap metal.
Destined for Geert Frisson's motorcycle club in the Limburg commune of Borgloon, it was the largest cocaine seizure in Belgian history at that time.
Investigators were able to identify four different gangs that were all linked in one way or another.
Since then there have been more house searches, while more suspects have been arrested and shipments of cocaine, hidden among bananas, avocados or scrap metal, intercepted.
In September 2022, we reported on how Dutch police had issued new images of 'Bolle Jos', known as the cocaine king of Antwerp, after they received several tip-offs that he now “may look different”.
A reward of €75,000 was previously offered for the tip that leads to the arrest of Leijdekkers who is on the National Investigation List in the Netherlands for cocaine trafficking and violence.
The police had distributed message seeking information in May alongside the latest photos available of the suspect.
“A dozen tips came in about Jos Leijdekkers,” the police said at that time. “Based on that information, it became clear that he probably looks different now, and a composite drawing was made of this. In addition, we received visual material with Jos Leijdekkers on it.”
Police suspect that Leijdekkers, who has no fixed place of residence or residence in the Netherlands, has been abroad for some time, possibly in Turkey.
“However, the investigation has not yet provided any concrete insight into his whereabouts. With this new material, we hope to get more information about his whereabouts so that we can subsequently arrest him," the police added.
He is suspected of large-scale laundering of the criminal proceeds of his drug trade and is considered one of the leading players in the international cocaine trade.
Intercepted crypto communications show that Leijdekkers was guilty of laundering tens of millions of euros and hundreds of kilos of gold that were probably earned through the cocaine trade.
An investigation team compiled criminal files about the involvement of Leijdekkers in the import of large consignments of cocaine via the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. One of the cases also involved the threat and use of violence.
He is also suspected of being involved in very serious cases of excessive violence, including the disappearance and death of Naima Jillal (52), also known as 'Aunt Naima'. She disappeared on October 20, 2019 after getting into a car in Amsterdam.
Intercepted crypto communication messages show that Leijdekkers played an important role in Jillal's disappearance.
There was no further trace of Naima Jillal until photos of a woman were found on a telephone that was seized in the Marengo investigation. It is suspected that it is Jillal and that she has probably been tortured and is no longer alive.
The Marengo trial or Marengo case involved leading members of the Mocro Mafia, a Dutch-Moroccan criminal organisation.
Seventeen suspects, including Ridouan Taghi, a former ally of the Kinahan Cartel. went on trial for involvement in a number of murders and attempted murders.