Yesterday evening the biggest Dutch criminal of all times has been arrested by the police.

Dino Soerel is the expected leader of the 'Dutch Mafia' (as we can speak about that). He's has probably more power then Willem Holleeder. All crown witnesses in the case against Holleeder mentioned Soerel as the absolute leader. Soerel has likely given orders for several murders. For years the Dutch authorities tried to locate him and arrest him, but it never worked. Why Soerel was all of a sudden found has not been told yet.

Soerel is already convicted for 'leading a criminal enterprise' (dealing in drugs). He has 8 years to spent in prison for that. But it's very likely it will be a lot more after he (most likely) gets convicted for several murders.

Does the Netherlands have the death penalty?
Does life in prison really mean life or can you get parole?

Welcome back, Floors.

The Brits thought Soerel was hiding out in Manchester--they referred to him as "the fleeing Dutchman.:

It's a good thing the Netherlands police finally caught up to him. They were embarrassed when another of the Top Eight, Franky Eeckhout, was found serving a long sentence in a Belgian prison.

No we don't have a death penalty. And life in prison is around 25 years if I'm correct.

Dino Soerel is seen as one of the biggest criminals in our country and was hiding & on the run for a very long time. So this is very good news for our police force. Now they have both Soerel and Willem Holleeder, who happened to be partners in crime. They also have one of their most ruthless hitmen, Jesse Remmers in custody. Dino Soerel is/was associated with the Cali cartel in Colombia and was therefore involved in the international drug trade.

News update:

Soerel was hiding in Amsterdam in a very normal house. Police observed him for 2 weeks after they got an intelligence tip of an unknown person. With his arrest two other people were also arrested.

@Sonny_Black: your intel isn't up to date friend. In the Netherlands 'life' means 'life'. Aboslutely (<=) no chance for parole (Okay, one exception: the King or Queen can give a Royal Pardon [grace]. That happened 3 times so far since 1970). The Netherlands is one of the few countries in the world were this is actually possible and voices are raised that this should change. Dutch law isn't completely according to the European law with this point. Also the longest prison term temporarily is 30 years.

Edit: I was off for two months because of my graduation and vacation afterwards. I've finally got my Master grade in Dutch Penal Law.

Okay, I guess my knowledge about the dutch law is limited. Congratulations with you're master degree btw.

Yes, congratulations, Floors! Does your degree mean you are a lawyer, and can defend criminals? Or does it mean that you can work in some other professional capacity in the law or penal system?

@Turnbull: It's the second. If I want to be a lawyer (future plans)I've to do 3 years additional study. Which I will do eventually.

Update:

Dino Soerel is officially arrested in his cel for two murders (Thomas van der Bijl and Kees Houtman). Both murders are researched by the prosecution under the name 'Passage'. The prosecution has two witnesses. One is Guiseppe la Serpa (crown witness) and an unknown protected person with the codename Q5. Both said that Soerel has ordered some murders together with Willem Holleeder.

Update:

Long time it was very quite around the Dutch Underworld but today it has the camera's back on it. Partner in crime of both Soerel and Holleeder, Stanley Hillis, was shot down 2 hours ago in Amsterdam.

Hillis was famous because of the number of robberies, but mainly for his two Houdini-acts: he escaped twice from jail. One time Amsterdam, one time Scheveningen.

Hillis was always armed and dangerous. He was suspect in several murders. Also he was related with the blackmailing of Willem Endstra (murdered).

Who did murder him?

Could be anybody. Hillis changed sides years ago. He went from the 'Mink Kok'-group to 'Holleeder'-group. He didn't get applause for that, so the 'Mink Kok'-group (a.k.a. Delta-network, the leftover of the 'Klaas Bruinsma'-group) is a possibility. Especially topcriminal Jotcha Jocic was mad about this move.

But more likely is the 'Holleeder'-group itself. Both Holleeder and Soerel are in jail, while Hillis was a free man. Main problem for the two in jail: Hillis knew a lot, probably too much. If police could get him it would be a disaster.

Update:

He was shot down by at least 2 persons. They are still on the run. Police has some links to them, they know they have to search for a Volkswagen Transporter who was seen on the crime scene.

Update:

- Hillis was ripped apart by the bullets, so it looks like a true hit where someone wants to be sure he dies.
- It was quite around Hillis the last years, he lived in the 'shadows'.

(If any info will come up, I'll update again)

Wow. This is big. Keep us informed!

New update:

According to Dutch newspapers the police 'witnessed' the assasination of Stanley Hillis. Police knew that Hillis had an appointment with Donny Groen at that time. So they hide themselves in somekind of vehicle. From there they wanted to listen to Hillis what he had to say against the other criminal. The vehicle was just 2 metres from the place Hillis was shot down.

Hillis was shot down before Donny Groen arrived, who arrived too late on his appointment. Groen was arrested immediately, but the criminals who actually shot Hillis got away. Even a helicopter couldn't track them down.

Do you think the agents could have recognised the shooters?

I imagine they weared balaclavas as they were obviously professionals...

The main problem was that the agents weren't prepared at all for this. They simply didn't expect it. And the second thing is their own safety. Could they have done anything? Stepping out of their hiding place into the unknown? They didn't know how many shooters there were or what equipment they had. So they didn't move.

The vehicle they hide in didn't had any openings (Dutch words: het was een aanhanger die je gebruikt bij verhuizen). So they probably couldn't recognize the shooters.

I think this must be very frustrating for the police then as they missed a big opportunity.

Frustrating it surely is. If they could get the shooters there will be a possibility they will know who's behind all this. Lets hope for some more info coming days/weeks.

Speculation is that the hit was ordered by Mink Kok.

Possible, not very likely as said above. Holleeder group is more logic. But it's quite with the news, nothing on tv/internet/radio. So we have to wait some time before we know more.

Just when I posted this I came across an article. It said that police is doing investigation in the Hells Angels department. The parking place was just nearby the Amsterdam Hells Angels HQ. That means that the initial surveillance wasn't on Hillis (!) but on Donny Groen. The used parking lot was a known location to investigators, because many criminals did some talking/dealing there.

Finally were on pace now. The trial against Soerel has been started. And what nobody expected; the man is going to rat out on Holleeder! He's the first one (after Guiseppe la Serpe, who looks unreliable) to talk about Holleeder. I expect fireworks here.

Soerel and Holleeder were partners all along, but in 2005 they got an quarrel. Soerel said that Holleeder mis-used Soerels name in some blackmailing operations.

Soerel is standing trial because he's accused of several murders.

Looking forward to this.

Some news on the Hillis part again.

The criminals who shot Hillis knew that Hillis had an appointment with Groen that day and time/place. How did they knew it? Police accidentally leaked a secret record about Hillis whereabouts and intentions for the coming week.

By a Dutch magazine it was pointed out that Hillis was working with the Police at the day of his death. He wore a transmitter to send the conversation to the police.

I don't know much about OC in the Netherlnads. Where is a good English language site to read about this stuff?

That's some serious news. Where did you get this from? I can't find it myself exept an article in which they speculate about him being an informant..

http://www.crimesite.nl/nieuws/moord/21326-had-hillis-een-zendertje-om.html

@TonyG: nothing good in English probably. That's why I try to keep you people a little little bit updated

@Sonny: it's based on several independent sites. They all come to same conclusion. Some time ago Vrij Nederland had a good article and mentioned it too.