EUROPE’S so-called “Godmother of Cocaine” Naima Jillal emerged as a powerful drug boss at the age of 47 before she mysteriously disappeared in Amsterdam, last seen getting into a car.
Later, disturbing images of a tortured woman, believed to be Jillal, who was importing cocaine from South American cartels, emerged but the trail has since run cold. Now The Sun can reveal an update to her missing person status.
Born and raised in the NetherlandsJillal, who would be 58 now, is alleged to have used containers filled with fruit to transport cocaine through ports in Holland and Belgium.
Despite being a powerful broker, acting as a go-between, it’s understood she was part of some terrifying underworld clashes and has now been missing for six years.
Starting as a low-level cocaine dealer, Spanish-speaking Jillal worked her way to the top and was well-connected to dealers, drug lords and formidable kingpins from Costa Rica and Ecuador.
She is estimated to have made millions, which she blew on luxury items including designer clothing and a lavish apartment for her son.
But in 2019, the crime boss was seen for the last time outside her apartment in Amsterdam, being picked up by a mysterious car.
Cops now believe Jillal was tortured and is no longer alive.
The Sun has since discovered Jillal has been taken off the Netherlands’ missing persons list. Amsterdam cops were unable to provide a comment.
After vanishing without a trace, cops said they had no leads, but gruesome pictures of a tortured woman would later emerge.
The woman in the pictures had her naked battered body tied to a chair with a finger and toe chopped off – and police believe it could be Jillal.
Netherlands Police said: “There was no trace of Naima Jillal for a long time. Until photos of a woman were found on a telephone seized in the Marengo investigation.
“It is suspected that it is Jillal and that she was probably tortured and is no longer alive.”
The Public Prosecution Service believe Dutch cocaine kingpin Jos Leijdekkers could be linked to Jillal’s disappearance.
According to intercepted encrypted communications, Leijdekkers, nicknamed “Chubby Jos”, was involved in organising her abduction and the subsequent violent acts committed against her.
Last year the Dutch Public Prosecution Service agreed to put up a reward of €200,000 (£172,000) for information leading to his arrest.
Where is ‘Chubby Jos’?
Mafia Boss Leijdekkers, 33, has been hiding out in Sierra Leone for over a year, Dutch authorities revealed.
The mobster was located after bombshell footage from earlier this year showed him at a church service seated two rows behind President Julius Maada Bio.
He was seen cosying up to a woman believed to be the President’s daughter, Agnes Bio.
It’s reported that the pair threw a luxurious engagement party last year, and Bio gave birth to their baby in the United States back in September.
Dubbed a “key player in international cocaine trafficking”, Leijdekkers was convicted in absentia last year by a Rotterdam court for smuggling over seven tonnes of cocaine and handed a 24-year prison sentence.
Leijdekkers’ bounty is the highest ever for a Dutch fugitive, yet he still remains untouchable as Sierra Leone has no extradition treaty with the Netherlands.
Jillal exploded onto the drug scene in 2014 and quickly climbed the ranks, according to RTL News.
The publication reported she arranged large shipments of cocaine from the comfort of her home in Marbella, Spain.
Jillal eventually angered a lot of people involved in the drug trade, making plenty of dangerous enemies, local paper AD reported.
It claimed she sold more places in containers than were available while alerting police to drug shipments.
In 2017, Dutch security agency the Team Criminal Intelligence (TCI) appeared to confirm her involvement in the drug trade when, according to reports in newspaper Het Parool, it said: “The Moroccan Naima, who comes from Utrecht, has been working in the cocaine trade for years.”
The TCI added: “Naima has the contacts to set up lines for the large-scale import of cocaine.”
Torture clues
It’s thought the Moroccan-Dutch mum came under suspicion from within in 2018 and 2019 when cartel bosses suspected her of informing police about their activities.
Such concerns reportedly peaked following a large scale drug bust in Rotterdam in early 2019.
Key players involved in the underworld were certain Jillal played a hand in the raid.
On October 20, 2019, she was spotted in central Amsterdam stepping into a black BMW at about 9.30pm. She has never been seen again.
Later that year, in December, a Blackberry phone was found in Dubai during the arrest of alleged Moroccan-Dutch crime boss Ridouan Taghi, which contained a photo of a mutilated woman tied to a chair.
In a second picture, the woman’s abdomen was reportedly seen with a cut-off finger and toe and, in a third, she was seen lying naked on her stomach on the floor.
Investigators determined the snaps were taken the same night Jillal stepped into the car.
Saws, scalpels, and hammers
A police raid in 2020 near Rotterdam uncovered an “underworld prison” with a torture room hidden inside a padded sea container.
The facility, built by a drugs gang, was fully stocked with a dentist’s chair, saws, scalpels, and hammers.
Police also found pliers, handcuffs, and a lie detector in a case that, while unconnected to Jillal’s disappearance, exposed the horrifying violence of the Dutch drug trade.
Mr Aling confirmed police found clothing and a handbag belonging to Jillal in a warehouse at the port of Antwerp in Belgium in 2021.
He previously said: “We didn’t find anything of her body.
“It was a possibility that she was underground there, but we searched there with dogs and we dug the whole thing out and we couldn’t find anything.”
A mega batch of 4,200kg worth of cocaine was seized from the same port warehouse site in 2018.
Mr Aling has not confirmed why Jillal has since been removed from the Netherlands’ missing persons list.
Before the missing persons post was taken down it read: “There is a suspicion that she has become a victim of a crime,” which Mr Thomas said was in reference to her possibly being murdered.
It further notes that Jillal’s loved ones have not received any signs of life from her since she disappeared, stating: “The family is very concerned.”
According to cops, Jillal’s family remain completely in the dark as to what happened to her.
On the night she disappeared, she was wearing all black clothing and a three-quarter-length coat. Cops said she had long brown hair and was 165cm tall.
Het Parool reported there were two big trafficking gangs looking for her at the time.
A source allegedly told the Telegraaf: “One of the [people] present gave her a few punches, after which she fell to the ground. She was dead within a minute.”
Drug deal riddle
Previously, cops indicated her vanishing and probable murder was related to a failed coke deal for which Jillal would’ve been held responsible.
They believed she put a target on her back by having access to valuable information on many gangsters, who assumed she was giving cops information.
Mr Aling told The Sun that police have now exhausted all leads and there are no more places for them to search for Jillal’s body, based on what they currently know.
Netherlands cops are still looking into the Jos Leijdekkers lead and said: “He is suspected of, among other things, international cocaine trafficking and money laundering.
“It is also suspected that he is involved in very serious cases of excessive violence, including the disappearance and death of Naima Jillal.”