WEBVTT - The Pineapple Trader | 4 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:05.480 Look money cops. The extra money's black money, going out, 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:10.800 spending money in e glips. You have enough money, you 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.600 can do what you want. Then you're for yourself a king. 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.200 This world, the underworld, has a different set of standards 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:26.040 and morals. Sometimes it can get a little bit dodgy. 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:28.440 I think that's the best way to describe it. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.800 I'm in the Netherlands, where vout Allowman's one of the 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:37.200 top Dutch crime reporters, has been explaining in the last 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:41.120 episode how the cocaine business made his country a very 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:46.600 violent place for a time. In twenty twenty, his contacts 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.640 in the criminal underworld gave him a tip it would 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.199 lead him to break one of the darkest stories of 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:57.400 his career. It's about a man called Roger p better 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:59.880 known by his nickname Pete Costa. 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.480 We don't know that much about him. He was a 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.399 regular kind of guy. He was born in nineteen seventy one. 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.200 He's a guy who grew up in Rotterdam, and he's 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:16.040 a flyer, a the arraider kind of guy, an average joe. 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.440 But that was a facade. 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:24.040 He went to call for a few robberies in the past, 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:26.959 and people in the criminal world say he was making 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:32.440 speed like amphetamines, but he wasn't like a big drug 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:36.400 figure until in the Naughtiest That's when his star kind 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:37.280 of grew. 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.880 Roger P eventually served jail time for armed robbery and 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:46.039 assault in two thousand and six, but he was released 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.520 a few years later and began to travel regularly to 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:50.480 Latin America. 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:56.720 He settles in Costa Rica, where he's involved in pineapple trade, 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:02.160 and that's how he got his nickname pic Costa because 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:07.160 it was in Costa Rica, and that's where he started 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.880 sending large quantities of cocaine to the port of Rotterdam. 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.160 Soon, Rotterdam would become one of the main gateways through 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.440 which cocaine was smuggled into Europe and Roger P's operation 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:34.680 would expand into planned kidnappings, murder and torture. I'm Fiona 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.680 Hamilton and from The Times, The Sunday Times and News 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:52.000 Corp Australia. This is Cocaine Inc. Episode four, The Pineapple Trader. Okay, 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.000 so far in this series you've only heard from me 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.320 at the start and the end of each episode. But 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.799 it's time I properly introduced myself and tell you why 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:08.560 I care about this investigation. I've been a reporter for 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.720 more than twenty years, covering crime for more than half 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.760 that time. I was actually born in England, but brought 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.760 up in Australia, where I started out working on regional 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:24.080 newspapers in beautiful coastal areas near Brisbane in Queensland. I 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:25.920 made the move to the UK to try and get 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.720 a job on Fleet Street stay here for a few years. 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:33.560 Fifteen years later, I'm still at the Times. One of 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:35.760 the first big pieces I wrote for The Times was 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.760 about a cocaine dealer in London. He spoke so casually 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.200 about fighting over territory and his chances of getting what 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.880 he called wetted up which means knife in the process. 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:51.280 This young lad, Michael, he won strength of being a firefighter, 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.000 but now aged nineteen, he wanted to make enough money 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.560 to put him in the director's seat, as he called it, 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.480 you know, being the top dog run other kids dealing coke. 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:06.640 I've reported on so many Michaels since then. I've written 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.280 about record drug bus Government promises to crack down on 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.280 Class A drugs and community initiatives to offer more activities 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:18.359 and diversions for those involved in selling them, but it 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:23.640 all feels like a bit of a broken record. Privately, 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.400 some of the police chiefs I talk to say it's 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.360 like an arcade game. One dealer gets arrested, but another 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.000 pops up in their place, and it's a game that 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:38.000 we are badly losing. I don't know what Michael's doing 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:42.080 these days, if he's even alive. But of course there 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.840 are hundreds and thousands of Michaels across the world, all 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.640 of them looking to sell cocaine. So how do they 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:49.120 get it? 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:50.360 Well? 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.280 That brings us to the next part of the multinational 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.599 business model, distribution. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:01.600 Tell me what you had for breakfast? I can get 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:02.520 your sound levels. 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.360 Oh, this morning I had to breakfast I take from 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:09.200 Yochot with Chrisley, so that's normally my breakfast. 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.080 Okay, lovely, this is Hare. 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:15.080 We have a big problem in the port of Rotterdam 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:15.839 with cocaine. 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.080 He's the leader of the hit and Run Cargo team 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:24.400 in Rotterdam, a specialist unit combining customs, police, public prosecutors 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.159 and intelligence. We can only use his first name to 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:33.120 protect his family's safety. Hair is no stranger to cocaine 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:34.920 bus it's. 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:40.040 Every year, about two hundred times, so I think I 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.159 have more than one thy to fifteen hundred times we 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.159 find the drugs in the last years, so for me 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:47.919 it's quite normal. 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:50.240 Yeah. 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:53.880 Last year, almost sixty tons of cocaine was seized across 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:58.479 the Netherlands, including a single massive eight tons seizure made 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:02.560 right here at the port in Rotterdam. Officials laid out 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.800 the hall in a warehouse with fat blocks of cocaine 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.560 stacked one on top of the other, wrapped in plastic sacks. 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.000 It looked like it would fill the laurry easily, a 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:14.960 truly industrial quantity. 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:18.839 There are a lot of products who are produced in 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.480 South America, so fruit and vegetables is one of the 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:26.919 common ways to bring the drugs into containers. Only maybe 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.760 ten or twenty percent of all the cocaine it's coming 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.280 in to port of rotter Image destinated for the Netherlands, 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.680 and the rest of the cocaine is distributed somewhere to Europe, 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.320 for example, to Great Britain. The last few years we 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.880 see a lot of ripoff. A ripoff, it's meaning that 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.799 you have regular goods and somewhere in the logistical chain 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.599 they opened the container, they put in some bags with 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:57.800 drugs extra, they close the container, again, make a new 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:02.080 seal on it, send it to Rotterdam, and somebody in 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.400 Rotterdam must open the container and take out the drugs 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:09.000 before the regular cargo is going to its destination. 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.200 To do that, the correct shipping container needs to be 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:21.640 located by the drug gang among the thousands of containers. 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:22.720 Moving through the port daily. 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.720 Rotterdam is the biggest port in Europe. But imagine you're 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.560 part of the cocaine smuggling operation. It's your job to 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:36.360 find the shipping container with the drugs in it. Everywhere 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:42.080 you look there's towers of containers, So how do you 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:43.800 find that needle in a haystack? 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.960 All the people are working somewhere in the port, so 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:53.120 they need somebody from inside for have information. 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:01.920 So I've left the hotel in Rotterdam this morning. It's 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:06.760 a lovely sunny day. Very quickly the city landscape of 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:11.560 Rotterdam has given way to a massive industrial area, big 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:16.240 puffs of smoke going into the air from refineries and warehouses. 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:20.760 There's about eight lanes of traffic going in all sorts 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:25.040 of different directions, trucks zipping past me every couple of seconds. 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.120 Just getting more and more of a sense of how 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.200 quickly goods. 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:32.400 Are moved through this port. 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.040 So I've just got out the car and I'm looking 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:49.160 across a quite large canal to one of the terminals. 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:54.080 But there's four or five of these terminals here, leading 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:57.040 all the way out to the North Sea. I'm looking 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:01.119 to my right and i can see one, two, three 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:06.920 of these absolutely gigantic ships filled with thousands of containers. 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.000 And I'm really really getting the sense of the scale 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:13.800 here of how much product is moved into this port 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:18.760 every single day. I mean, I've been covering stories on 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:23.240 drugs for many, many years and speaking about the sometimes 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.120 futile battle, and perhaps I get a new sense of 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.719 the futility of it looking at this place and how 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:30.480 enormous it is. 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:38.040 I mean, the best way to get cocaine into a 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.559 country is if you have corrupt guys at customs. 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.080 This is about Allowman's again, the Dutch crime reporter who 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.680 was telling us about Roger p the cocaine dealer who 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:54.400 made a fortune importing the drug from Latin America. Every year, 0:09:54.880 --> 0:10:00.600 fourteen million containers moved through the port. Unsurprisingly, the authorities 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:04.559 aren't able to search everyone for illegal drugs and other contraband. 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.600 In fact, they're only able to check about one percent. 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:12.880 So with the help of someone in the port, it's 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.760 not hard to see how guys like Roger P with 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:20.120 his pineapple containers can have their shipments missed or wave through. 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:27.080 There's a department and it's called pre arrival, and that's 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:32.160 where they decide which container gets checked and which container 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.320 doesn't get checked. If you want to use some jargon, 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:40.640 that's like putting a container on green. People working there 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.440 for him they knew which containers were coming in and. 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:44.800 They would put them on green. 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:49.600 And that was like a lottery that you can't lose 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:54.000 because then you can just send containers full of drugs 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.600 through customs because you know they're not going to be checked. 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.120 Back in twenty sixteen, authorities managed to intercept three point 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.480 seven tons of cocaine, which they trace back to Roger P, 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.720 also known by his nickname Pete Costa. In fact, Vouter 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:17.800 uses the name interchangeably. What really matters here, though, is 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.679 that three point seven tons of cocaine. 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:23.480 Is probably enough to fill a decent sized truck from 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:25.200 the floor to the ceiling. 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.679 To smuggle an amount of cocaine that big, you have 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.439 to be very sure of yourself, because that's a lot 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:40.400 of money. 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.040 So are you able to introduce yourself for the purpose 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:44.040 of this podcast and. 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:44.839 Tell me who you are? 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.319 Yes, of course, and we're not using your real name, 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:49.880 we're giving you the pseudonym case. 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:52.760 Are you able to say why that is. 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:54.800 My own? 0:11:54.840 --> 0:12:01.240 Chiefly I'm in a hotel room in Rotterdam. Case is 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:05.840 an ex harbor worker. He's hunched over. He seems a 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:09.600 little nervous because he wants helped smuggle cocaine through this 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.960 very port, now retired. Case was twenty six when he 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:17.040 first started his transport company back in the eighties. 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:19.240 Although they never worked together. 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.560 I'm hoping that case can help me understand how someone 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.440 like Roger p could build up such a profitable operation. 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:34.520 Were you were aware that the port of Rotterdam was 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.200 a point for which there was a lot of illicit 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:38.360 drug smuggling? 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.720 Yes, but nothing both so I didn't care. 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:48.280 How did you know? Hey, so it's really in plain 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:49.640 so it's obvious it. 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:51.079 Was in plain Sat at that time. It was a 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.040 plain Sat. Yes, can you give me everybody who was 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.760 working in the port knows it. You're here, that's coming in. 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:03.120 You see some companies growing like hell, this is impossible 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:05.600 that they were growing so quickly because you were in 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.160 the same business. So you know what the prophets I 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:10.360 and yeah, what you can spend. 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.480 Although he knew it was happening. For ten years or so, 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:18.720 Case ran his company legally. He earned good living and 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:24.400 enjoyed the work. But one day a friend came asking 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:25.079 for a favor. 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.800 He had some problems with the import of an container, 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:34.040 and he asked me to help him be imported to 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:37.160 contain it for him. Later on they came to the 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:41.920 office and they put a bag of money here for 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.959 the success. And well then I knew it was a 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:50.040 rug transport, of course, and from that time on that 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:55.600 was EU money, big money, how much mm more than 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:56.480 enough to buy a house. 0:13:58.600 --> 0:13:59.600 And from that moment you. 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.000 Were in, and from that moment I was in. 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.360 Once in Case's experience of moving goods legally through the 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:11.360 port made him increasingly useful to his criminal business partners. 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:16.360 You know how the customs are working. That was kind 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.400 of containers. They will check, they will not check, and 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.840 then tell them how to do it. And you were imported. 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:27.760 I had my own lawes transported to this wherever they wanted. 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:32.080 Nobody who was in the business from from Dorgs. She 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:38.520 it as something criminal, just a cargo, just something to 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:39.480 buy and sell. 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.840 Business was booming, and eventually cases associates in the Netherlands 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.520 told him there was somebody who wanted to meet him, 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:50.600 somebody in Latin America. 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.840 So you go over there, meet the real people over 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.600 there and making agreement. How much you get for it? 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:04.160 Yeah. 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.600 Do you feel comfortable saying where exactly you traveled to 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:13.480 meet people Mexico Columbia. Did you feel intimidated or fear 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:14.040 them when. 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:14.400 You met them? 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.880 No? No, one business men, their own company is over there. 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.080 It's not like what you see on television. 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:24.760 Very much a business model in the same way that 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:26.000 other commerce works. 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:27.880 Yeah. Correct, Correct. 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.880 Were you feeling any financial pressure too? Did you need 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:32.800 a little bit more money? 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:34.280 No? 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:39.040 No, not really, but once you realized how easy. 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:44.280 It was, It was so easy to import without any problems, 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:45.840 and then yeah, right not. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:51.040 For twenty five to thirty years, Case lived two lives, 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.480 one with his legitimate business and the other running his 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:55.440 illicit operation. 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.600 Look and money corrects. The extra money is black money 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:05.960 going out spending money in the eclipse. You have enough money, 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:08.520 you can do what you want. Then you're for yourself 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:08.840 a king. 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:16.200 But even a king knows nothing last forever. In time, 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.720 the police caught up with him. Case was arrested and 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.360 served six years in jail. He says he actually felt 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:27.200 good about it because although he'd been making money, he'd 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.920 also been feeling unable to escape the cocaine business. 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.760 It looks stupid. Bit at the moment the police get you, 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.080 you get all through your freedom back when you start. 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:43.960 There is only one end. It could take one year, 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:47.040 could take ten years, can take twenty years. Within the 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:48.280 end you lose. 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.640 You see a corruption everywhere in the public partners and 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:01.640 the private partners, also by customs. That's not good. That's true. 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.879 This is Hair again, who leads a specialist unit tackling 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.360 corruption in Rotterdam. But he's not just dealing with low 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.280 level corrupt workers like Case. There's also corruption within the 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:14.919 customs authority itself. 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:18.680 I was on a department where one of the colleagues 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:23.720 was corrupt. It's about six seven years ago, and this 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.720 colleague give information to a criminal organization about the containers 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.160 we want to control and we want not to control. 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:35.320 After an investigation, Hair's colleague was exposed and ended up 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.080 going down for between eight and ten years. 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:43.959 I was angry because, together with your team, you try 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.879 to stop the drugs, and when there is one of 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.160 your colleagues who is corrupt, and then you are looking 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.720 also to the other colleagues, Hey, what's happening over here? 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.680 Are you trustworthy or are you also corrupt? So that's 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:00.399 also very difficult. 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:02.280 Speaking to her. 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.679 You can see how much this bothers him, how the 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:09.120 cocaine trade even corrupts those in the top law enforcement 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:13.439 teams who he should be able to rely on now 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.760 vout Allowmans. The crime reporter says Roger p had a 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.880 lot of corrupt people on his payroll in his cocaine 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:21.920 smuggling operation. 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.679 He was working with all these guys and some of 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:31.359 them were responsible for stashing the cocaine, Others were protecting 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.719 money stashes, others were selling the cocaine. To have an 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:37.879 operation like that, you have to be a clever manager 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.919 as well. You can't just fuck about. You have to 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:45.200 know what you're doing in the underworld. He wasn't known 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.320 as a very violent guy. I think it was smart 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:52.800 enough to understand that violence breeds attention, and the thing 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.160 you don't want is attention. 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.720 But being smart isn't always enough in the drug business. 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.840 Like any chief exec, there's some things you can predict 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:09.000 and some things you can't, like workplace conflicts when two 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:10.400 colleagues suddenly fall out. 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:16.600 In around two thousand and twenty, he gets in a 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:20.000 massive conflict with somebody who used to work with and 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:23.199 he says, this guy, I made him a millionaire. He 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.280 went to Dubai, he spent all this money, and then 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.480 he decided to steal money from me. That's what Roger 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.960 P says in intercepted messages. Roger P says, this guy 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.879 stole money that was about one hundred million worth of 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:39.439 real estate and other stuff. 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.400 So Roger P launches an investigation into this former colleague. 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:49.200 He tells his employees to deal with it, but this 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.120 is no ordinary hr disciplinary process. 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:54.680 They kidnapped the guy. 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:58.639 The guy is obviously very scared and he promises to 0:19:58.680 --> 0:19:59.600 make everything right. 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:05.480 So Pete Coster's associates release him. And that's a mistake 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:10.159 because rather than making everything right, someone very close to 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:12.040 Roger P ends up dead. 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:19.520 In May twenty twenty, a guy named Ibrahim Azaim his 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:23.240 nickname is Ebo, gets murdered in Rotendam. He gets shot 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:29.480 and he was like Roger PAS's son. From what I heard, 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:34.280 it was very close to Roger P. So now Pete 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:39.639 Costa is involved in a violent conflict revolving around one 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:43.920 hundred million euros worth of real estate that. 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:49.040 Was stolen from him and somebody he loved very much 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:49.760 got shot. 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:57.479 So when Roger p finds out, he drives from Spain 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:04.320 where he lives, to the Netherlands and there he gets 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:09.840 into contact with a guy and they decide that they 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:20.280 are going to retaliate. In the summer of twenty twenty, 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:24.080 I was working for a national newspaper. I was writing 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:28.120 about organized crime together with a Colleguemannon Mayus. We heard 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.640 stories that encro had fallen. 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:37.520 Vouters talking about Anchor Chat, a company that made sophisticated 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:43.720 encrypted devices disguised though like ordinary phones, the user could 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:47.960 access a secret messaging system. Set up in twenty sixteen, 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:52.159 It soon became the way criminals communicated across countries and 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:57.159 between continents. They all basically thought it was impenetrable, but 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.520 then in early twenty twenty, French and authorities began to 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:06.560 hack the system. A gigantic cyber investigation led to eight 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:08.480 hundred arrests across Europe. 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.800 The encrypted communication in which criminals thought that they were 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:14.760 free to speak, was intercepted in a legal way by 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:16.119 the French authorities. 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:18.560 Nique A police in Korchet. 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.960 So far, they've arrested seven hundred and forty six suspects, 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:26.400 seized more than fifty four million pounds in cash, two 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:31.400 tons of cocaine, seventy seven firearms, and fifty five luxury cars. 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:37.040 So everywhere is like, oh fuck, what if this guy 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:38.000 talked about me? 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:41.399 Or what have I sent? So it wasn't like panic, 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:42.320 but it was unrest. 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:47.240 I was talking to this guy who was like a 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:51.639 high up somebody who knows what's what in the underworld. 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:57.040 Because it's during the pandemic, Vowder has to go and 0:22:57.080 --> 0:23:01.359 meet his source outside. They end up in an industrial estate. 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:07.040 So we were standing at a parking area at one 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:10.760 of those places where you can buy like tools and 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:13.919 equipment and wood and stuff like that, and we were 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:18.280 talking about what was going on, and somebody got arrested, 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:21.600 and we were talking about the arrest and very casually 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:24.199 the guy says, all right, so if they found this, 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:26.040 they know about the torture seller. 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:28.720 And I'm like, torture seller, what are you talking about? 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:29.200 You know? 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:32.080 So I was like, what the fuck a torture seller. 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:35.159 I go back to my then colleague, Young Mays, and 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:40.320 I asked I tell him the story, And he goes 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:47.240 to a source high up in the justice department and 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:50.640 he says, right, we hear stories about some torture chambers. 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:55.000 And the guy replies, how the hell do you guys 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:59.920 know that? So a few days after that, the police 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:02.679 releases a video where you see how they raid the place. 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:12.600 The video shows heavily armed police ram down the door 0:24:12.640 --> 0:24:19.240 to a brick building as a helicopter hovers overhead. Inside, 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:27.360 they smash open door after door, they find a row 0:24:27.359 --> 0:24:31.200 of shipping containers. Opening them, the police find that one 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:35.960 is lined with plastic, empty except for a single dentist's chair. 0:24:37.000 --> 0:24:40.880 There are belts tied to the arms and handcuffs secured 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:41.680 to the foot rest. 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:48.720 It looked like something out of a horror movie, like 0:24:48.840 --> 0:24:49.600 Saw or something. 0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:54.080 It was totally crazy. 0:24:54.280 --> 0:24:54.560 Feeling. 0:24:56.240 --> 0:24:59.480 In this video, released on the Dutch Police's YouTube channel, 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:03.440 head of the National Investigation Department explains that police found 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:08.920 seven containers. Six of those were holding cells. The seventh 0:25:09.520 --> 0:25:12.679 the one with the dentist's chair was the torture chamber 0:25:12.760 --> 0:25:14.280 Wouter had heard about. 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:16.959 In containers off of a four hand if. 0:25:18.320 --> 0:25:22.840 The officer says, the Dutch police found tools including hammers, pliers, 0:25:23.160 --> 0:25:25.080 scalpels and blow tortures. 0:25:26.640 --> 0:25:32.080 The containers were soundproof, so when the police found the containers, 0:25:32.119 --> 0:25:34.320 they put in an officer or an agent in the 0:25:34.359 --> 0:25:36.320 container and they closed the container and they told them 0:25:36.359 --> 0:25:40.000 to scream as loudly as possible, and from the outside 0:25:40.000 --> 0:25:42.480 she couldn't hear it because it was very well isolated. 0:25:43.800 --> 0:25:47.560 Police got there just in time. The chamber was ready, 0:25:48.000 --> 0:25:49.320 but it hadn't been used. 0:25:50.600 --> 0:25:53.440 In the police investigation, they found out that the guy 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:56.119 who ordered to build or who paid for the building 0:25:56.119 --> 0:25:58.000 of the containers was Becassa. 0:26:01.280 --> 0:26:04.480