Six-year Dutch trial ends in life sentence for cocaine cartel leader

Ridouan Taghi among three gang members given life terms with 14 others given lesser sentences

A Dutch court has sentenced the head of a brutal cocaine cartel to life imprisonment over a campaign of murders and attempted assassinations that prosecutors described as “a well-oiled killing machine”.

Ridouan Taghi was among three gang members handed life terms, with 14 others sentenced to between 21 months and 29 years in jail after an unprecedented trial whose nearly six years of hearings were marked by three more related murders.