Discovering the hidden stories of the Northern European drug trade.
The Betrayal – Giving Life to Gateway
“After a botched killing in Amsterdam one night in 2017, Nabil B knows he’s a dead man. He’s a close associate of Ridouan Taghi, one of Europe’s biggest cocaine kingpins. The question is who’s going to kill him first.”
A Drug Lord Tries to Defend Himself
In the final episode of the series, we are taken to the Bunker, the windowless fortress on the outskirts of Amsterdam, where the trial of the Netherlands’ most dangerous criminal takes place.
Writing in the Drug War
Episode Five of Gateway tells the story of Peter R De Vries, a TV journalist who was a household name across the Netherlands for his coverage of crime cases. In Episode Three, we heard the story of criminal blogger Martin Kok. “I need to say he was killed because of
Drug Lords of Dubai
“Dubai did become a bit of a mecca for all sorts of interesting individuals on the run,” Alex Yearsly, an expert on money laundering, tells us in episode three of Gateway. We’ve already reported on how Dubai is a refuge for oligarchs and kleptocrats. But for years, it has
How to Hack a Phone, Cocaine Style
“That man needs to sleep. At all costs, brother. That’s what needs to happen, brother” Ridouan Taghi wrote in a text message. “He knows we’ll let everyone sleep on him if he has mentioned my name,” he says in another. “Sleep” had prompted an alert, as did “liquidate”
For Whom the Underworld Shivers
“The cocaine trade is the only trade I know where you can go from a guy on a scooter with a North face jacket dealing small amounts of cocaine, to a kingpin who owns millions and millions worth of real estate in Dubai,” said Laumans.
On the Ground with Mitchell Prothero
Reporting from Amsterdam and Antwerp, Mitchell Prothero spent the past year diving into Europe’s cocaine crisis through the dramatic stories of cartel leaders, cops, journalists, and victims caught in the middle for our upcoming podcast series GATEWAY: Cocaine, Murder, and Dirty Money in Europe.
Record Cocaine, Raging Violence: Antwerp’s Year-in-Review
The murder of an accused drug kingpin’s niece in Antwerp on Monday night came just hours before a joint Belgian-Dutch announcement that 2022 was, once again, a record-setting year for cocaine seizures in the port of Antwerp. The 11-year-old girl died after unknown gunmen fired into a garage in
How to Sneak Metric Tons of Cocaine Into Europe: The Art of “Transshipments”
A Freelancing Montenegrin Ex-Boxer and Smuggling on the High Seas After US authorities discovered nearly 20 metric tons of cocaine aboard several ships in the port of Philadelphia, prosecutors made an astounding assertion. All this cocaine, the largest amount seized in US history, had actually been destined for Rotterdam, Europe’
BELGIUM’S “WHITE CHRISTMAS”: Cocaine Goes Bananas For the Holidays
Belgian customs officials in Antwerp seized nearly ten metric tons of cocaine hidden in banana shipments in multiple busts last week in what customs officials say is a “White Christmas,” as tons of cocaine flood into the low countries ahead of the holidays. In two raids in Antwerp, authorities found
A troubling spate of bombings in Antwerp
Nightly bombings last week appear to have been replaced by nightly shootings in Antwerp as criminal gangs fighting to control cocaine imports at the port appear to have escalated tensions that have been simmering all summer. On Monday evening, a man was shot to death in the Antwerp neighborhood of
Antwerp Gang Wars Heating Up
The murder of a convicted Dutch drug trafficker in front of a hangout for a notorious Antwerp based smuggling clan is roiling the Antwerp underworld. Some observers I've talked to fear a return to the gang wars of the last decade as the premier drug traffickers of Europe
