274,942 viewsMay 21, 2026 #dwdocumentary#documentary#dwdocs
In Rotterdam, local street gangs join forces with Colombians to build their empire. Driven by raging demand, the cocaine trade has triggered an unprecedented wave of violence. |
Watch Part 1:
- How drugs made the Netherlands rich |
• Europe's drug mafia (1/2) - How drugs made...
The second part of this documentary begins in Europe, in the 2000s. It traces the rise of major criminals who came to the Netherlands as immigrants. These include Gwenette Martha and Ridouan Taghi, who became the main contacts for South American cocaine dealers. To defend the bosses' interests, their organization practiced unprecedented violence. Murders of lawyers and journalists, acts of retaliation with military weapons, and threats against the royal family shook the country.
Some surviving drug dealers ended up in Dubai, the trading paradise of the Middle East. From here, they continued their business via encrypted communication platforms.
When police authorities succeeded in cracking down on these platforms in 2020, they thought they had found the Holy Grail: thousands of drug dealers were arrested, record amounts of weapons, cash, and drugs were seized, and countless henchmen who had been secretly laundering money were identified.
But the criminal gangs reorganized in no time at all—and became even more agile and mobile than before. Further proof of the criminals' resilience and procurement capabilities was the price of a gram of cocaine - which remained stable through it all. In the mid-2020s, judges, police forces, and European customs officials agreed on one thing: drug trafficking poses the greatest threat to Europe's internal security.
The first part of this documentary shows how the Netherlands became the European hub for narcotics.
As early as the 17th century, Dutch colonialism laid the foundation for a lucrative drug trade. Opium from Indonesia financed the rise of the trading empire. This was followed by the cultivation of coca plants on Java - which formed the basis for Amsterdam's early cocaine production. Even when international bans officially ended the trade during World War I, the system survived, underground. In the interwar period, an illegal market emerged and continues to have an impact today.
After the Second World War, drug trafficking initially seemed to be a thing of the past. But the 1960s brought radical change: with the rise of counterculture, demand grew for hashish from Morocco and heroin from the Indian subcontinent. The Netherlands responded with a unique strategy - the separation of so-called hard and soft drugs. Coffee shops were aimed at regulating consumption. But criminal structures became entrenched.
Figures such as Klaas Bruinsma, the "Dutch Al Capone,” became powerful drug lords.
In the 1990s, the country became the epicenter of synthetic drugs: ecstasy pills flooded Europe, and the profits flowed into real estate and the real economy. When the old underworld generation disappeared, young criminals from working-class neighborhoods took over. Their focus was on cocaine, the ‘new’ profitable drug.
The documentary shows how colonial trade routes gave rise to a modern network that continues to shape Europe's drug market to this day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OagsSY1G0-g
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