Hague official accused of taking bribes to supply Kinahan-linked hitman with fake passports

A 50-year-old woman identified only as Mildred Van D. appeared in court in the Netherlands on Monday in relation to allegedly supplying 22 criminals with passports during her time working as an official in the municipality of the Hague between 2009 and 2004.

The passports contained real photos of the criminals but contained false names and other information.

Prosecutors allege she received €16,000 for providing the passports.

It is alleged she was bribed by a criminal identified as Faysal N who has bene linked to large scale cocaine smuggling and violent kidnapping.

Dutch media outlet Het Parool reported this week that a passport was also made that was intended for Kinahan associate Ridouan Taghi who was deported from Dubai in 2019 to face serious organised crime charges back in the Netherlands. Taghi had used a false passport to enter Dubai.

Another Kinahan associate Naoufal Fassih was also found with one of the false passports when he was arrested in a Kinahan safehouse on Baggot Street in Dublin in 2016.

Fassih had been hiding out in Dublin with the assistance of the cartel as he was wanted in the Netherlands in relation to gangland offences.

He was later extradited and sentenced to 18 years behind bars for ordering a gun attack on Dutch national Peter Raap who survived the shooting.

In 2019 he was jailed for life for the organising the murder the December 2015 murder of Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi – an Iranian dissident living in the Netherlands.

Dutch authorities believe that murder was ordered by the Iranian regime.

Fassih was a leading member of a Dutch gang along with Taghi and Dutch-Chilean trafficker Ricardo 'El Rico' Riquelme Vega who was jailed for 11 years last year in the Netherlands on organised crime offences.

Along with the Kinahans and other organised crime gangs they are said to have formed a 'super cartel' that is believed to have imported a staggering €23 billion worth of cocaine into Europe.

Taghi is currently one of 16 people on trial in the Marengo trial in the Netherlands where prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for his involvement in organised crime.

Despite being held in a high security Taghi has been able to communicate with members of the supercartel and other associates.

Dutch authorities have previous alleged that he discussed prison escape with associates and this week it emerged that the FBI warned their Dutch counterparts of Taghi’s communications from behind bars.

According to the FBI, Taghi regularly had “unsupervised physical and/or electronic communications” with contacts outside prison with the help of “one or more compromised prison guards” while he was in Extra Secure Institution (EBI) in Nieuw Vosseveld, a maximum-security prison in Vught.

Messages recovered from cryptophones show that Taghi was in contact with Italian mafia boss Raffaele Imperiale while incarcerated in November 2020.

Police believe that the pair were communicating about drug deals and deduced from other reports that Taghi’s son was in frequent contact with Raffaele on behalf of his father.

This year, a Dutch investigation codenamed 26Velp revealed that Jaouad F., the eldest son of Taghi’s sister, was trying to corrupt guards at Nieuw Vosseveld through “bribery, blackmail, and threats” in order to smuggle a phone inside for Taghi.

Despite warnings from the FBI, Dutch authorities allowed Taghi's cousin Youssef to visit him in the EBI and speak to him as a lawyer. The Ministry of Justice and Security said that they initially saw no reason to refuse Youssef entry to the prison.

Their first meeting took place in March last year and Youssef was arrested at the prison in October, accused of helping Taghi plan a prison break and passing on his messages.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) told the Dutch media organisation NRC that there were indications that Taghi could communicate with the outside world.

“This had been investigated, but no hard evidence was found as to whether and how this happened. Therefore, in March 2021, there was insufficient legal ground to refuse this new lawyer,” they said.