MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA — Colombia’s National Police detained Dutch national Eldrich Boedhoe in Medellín after he settled in the country in 2015 and, investigators say, became the main coordinator of a network sending cocaine to France, Spain and the Netherlands.
Boedhoe was wanted under an Interpol Red Notice and already had a final 12-year prison sentence in the Netherlands for drug trafficking. Colombian reporting links that conviction to a 2012 case in which he and others moved more than six kilograms of high-purity cocaine into the Netherlands.
Police identified him as the principal coordinator of a structure that recruited couriers to carry cocaine on commercial flights. The group hid the drug in luggage with false bottoms to evade airport controls.
Authorities say he spent years building ties with Colombian trafficking organizations and handling logistics for shipments leaving the country.
The arrest followed joint work by Colombian police, France’s internal security service (SSI) and the U.S. Marshals Service. After the detention, Boedhoe was placed at the disposal of Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office, which is handling his transfer to Dutch authorities to serve the existing sentence.
