Gangsterdam: How did the land of windmills and tulips become a scene of so much bloodshed?

A famous Dutch reporter is killed on the streets of Amsterdam by a notorious gangster. Niko Vorobyov investigates the background to a wave of organised crime spreading across the Netherlands

Special forces guard the bunker where the Marengo trial is taking place in Amsterdam (ANP/AFP/Getty)

A man steps out of a fast-food joint into a hail of more than 80 bullets. A severed head is left outside a cafe; its back turned to the street as if looking in, left as a gruesome message. A van is ploughed into the offices of the country’s leading newspaper and set alight. Then a few days later an anti-tank rocket is fired into the offices of another major newspaper. A crown witness’s lawyer in a major mob trial is gunned down in front of his wife outside their home in broad daylight.

No, this isn’t the blood-drenched narco lands of Mexico or Colombia. It is Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, where the alleged culprits are standing trial in one of the biggest cases the country’s ever seen. Amsterdam is not a dangerous city – the biggest threat as a tourist is probably those cyclists that come out of nowhere. But this latest wave of gangland mayhem in the last several years has led to some serious soul-searching.

Earlier this month, Dutch crime reporter Peter de Vries was shot five times – including once in the head – after leaving a TV studio. He passed away a week later. Thousands of mourners gathered outside the Royal Carré Theatre, where his body was being held, to pay their last respects. De Vries was serving as an adviser to the crown witness in the case against the country’s most notorious crime boss, Ridouan Taghi.