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23 September 2004
AMSTERDAM — Detectives have arrested the former president of the Amsterdam Hells Angels, “Big Willem” van Boxtel, it was reported on Thursday. He was expelled from the motorbike club recently for allegedly accepting a contract to kill top criminal Willem Holleeder.
Two other people, Willem de M. and Willem P., were also detained when police carried out a series of raids on houses and premises in Amsterdam and nearby towns.
Big Willem was held when detectives searched the Angels-run café The Other Place on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. Newspaper Het Parool reported several houses belonging to the Van Boxtel family were also raided.
The Hells Angels have claimed Van Boxtel admitted last week he had been recruited by property tycoon Willem Endstra to kill the “Angel friend” Holleeder for EUR 1 million. Van Boxtel allegedly received a EUR 250,000 advance on that sum.
The plan, a lawyer for the club said, was to plant a bomb in the Angels’ own social centre – known as Angel Place — on H.J.E. Wenckebachweg in the Watergraafsmeer district of Amsterdam.
The Angels claim Van Boxtel admitted Willem P. was to plant the device. The plotters were not concerned about the possibility some of their Angel “brothers” could also be killed, the club said.
Willem de M. is described as Willem P.’s close friend.
No such attack was carried out, but the alleged instigator Endstra was shot dead in Amsterdam in May.
The intended victim, Willem Holleeder, is best known as one of the people who kidnapped beer magnate Freddie Heineken in 1983. In recent years, he was said to be associated with Endstra, who had denied claims he was the banker to the underworld in the Netherlands.
The Amsterdam Hells Angels said Van Boxtel was stripped of club membership when he allegedly confessed to the murder plot. His Hells Angels tattoos were removed and he was made to hand in all of his club possessions.
The club said for its part it considered the matter closed. It was also reported Thursday that Amsterdammer Willem P. has been expelled from the Westport chapter of the Hells Angels.
The Hells Angels have not provided any independent evidence to show there was a plot to kill Holleeder or that any of the men arrested were involved.
Justice officials have also indicated that they do not consider an alleged confession made to a Hells Angels solicitor has the same standing as a confession made to police.
[Copyright Expatica News 2004]
Subject: Dutch news + Hells Angels