Walter Finch
ONE of the most wanted crime bosses in Europe has gone on the run after a Spanish court released him on bail.
The feared Karim Bouyakhrichan, 46, leader of Holland’s ‘Mocro Mafia’, was captured to great fanfare in Marbella last January after a five-year operation to unravel his criminal empire.
Law enforcement figures in the Netherlands were amazed that one of their ‘most wanted and dangerous criminals’ was finally in custody.
Dutch authorities immediately requested his extradition over death threats he had made towards the Netherland’s Crown Princess, Amalia of Orange, when she was just 18.
But this was blocked by a Malaga court on the grounds that Bouyakhrichan had serious charges to face in Andalucia, according to sources consulted by Cadena Ser.
Instead, Bouyakhrichan was granted his freedom in exchange for posting €50,000 bail and a promise that he would show up to court every fifteen days.
He is the brother and heir of the notorious crime lord Samir ‘Scarface’ Bouyakhrichan, who was stabbed to death outside a pub in Benahavis in 2015.
The decision enraged not just the Policia Nacional but also the Dutch security services.
The Dutch-Moroccan was released on provisional bail on March 19, eight weeks after his arrest on 25 January, with orders to regularly sign on at a Marbella court.
Unsurprisingly, the mafia boss made just one trip to the court on April 1. On his next expected appearance on April 15 he failed to show, leading to a search and arrest order to be issued against him.
At the time of his arrest, several top officers of the Policia Nacional held a press conference to hold forth on a successful operation that had been five years in the making.
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The decision to release Bouyakhrichan on bail stunned both the police and Spain’s Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office, who appealed the decision.
The Dutch authorities even petitioned their counterparts in Madrid, stressing the extreme urgency of their extradition request and that he not be released.
Judge Ismael Moreno summoned Bouyakhrichan’s lawyer to inform him that his client would be extradited to Holland – a place the drug trafficker had already sworn he would never go.
But despite the warning, Judge Moreno failed to impose further restrictions on him to ensure he did not flee.
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Within days Bouyakhrichan was in the wind.
The operation that finally ensnared the surviving Bouyakhrichan saw the seizures of an unbelievable 172 luxury villas in the Marbella area and beyond worth up to €50 million each, and nearly €3 million in various bank accounts.
He is thought to head up a money-laundering operation valued in excess of €6 billion, as well as working with drug cartels in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Investigators also believe that he has become the link man between the South American cartels and fellow mafias the Balkan cartel, Albanian mafia and other European criminal operations which have lately joined forces to become a ‘super cartel’.
Together, the various groups are responsible for the importation of hundreds of tonnes of cocaine into Europe through ports in Spain, Belgium and Holland, the proceeds of which finds its way into the legitimate Spanish economy through real estate and other vectors.
