Klaas Bruinsma (drug lord)

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Klaas Bruinsma (October 6, 1953 – June 27, 1991) was a Dutch drug lord. Klaas Bruinsma, aka "De Lange" ("the tall one"), was shot to death by former police officer Martin Hoogland. He was also known as "De Dominee" ("the preacher") because of his black clothing and his habit of lecturing others.

[edit] Life

Bruinsma was born in Amsterdam as the second child to Anton Bruinsma and British E. Kelly. After the divorce of his parents at the end of the fifties, and the subsequently moving back to the United Kingdom of his mother, Bruinsma was raised by his father's housekeeper. In 1964, they moved to Blaricum. Bruinsma's father was founder and director of the Raak soda company; his four children had to clean bottles in the factory on Sundays.

While in high school, Bruinsma started using and selling hashish. When he was sixteen years old, he was arrested for the first time; he was let go with a warning. Later on, he was kicked out of school, and in 1974 he decided to start working in drug trafficking full-time. Sales were conducted through Thea Moear, who eventually would become his business partner. Bruinsma was arrested and convicted in 1976; after his release from jail, he changed his identity to Frans van Arkel, aka "Lange Frans" ("Tall Frans"). Together with Thea Moear and Etienne Urka he started a new organisation; kickboxer André Brilleman became his bodyguard.

In late 1979, Bruinsma was convicted again for organising a major hashish transport from Pakistan. After his release from jail, he started enlarging his organisation, and expanded his market to large parts of Europe, including Germany, Belgium, France and Scandinavia. In 1983, he became mixed up in a gun fight over stolen supplies of cannabis; he shot several people and was also wounded himself. In 1984, he was sentenced to three years in jail for this incident. During this period in jail, his father died of cancer.

After his release in 1987, Bruinsma reorganised his drug organisation. Etienne Urka replaced Thea Moear as Bruinsma's main business partner, a new division for exploitation of gambling machines was formed under supervision of Sam Klepper and John Mieremet, and Roy Adkins was appointed leader of the drug division. During this period, André Brilleman was accused of theft; he was brutally murdered and his body was enclosed in concrete and dumped in the river Waal.

At the end of the eighties, Bruinsma had become the greatest drug lord in Europe. His organisation made millions of guilders per day. At that point, he was planning of retiring, but not until after pulling one last big coup. He imported 45 tons of hashish, but after the supply arrived in the Netherlands, it was confiscated by the police. After that, things went downhill for Bruinsma; he started using cocaine and planned on blackmailing other Dutch criminals. Etienne Urka became the new leader of his organisation.

In the night of June 27, 1991, Bruinsma became involved in a verbal argument with Martin Hoogland, an ex-police officer who was employed by the Yugoslavian mafia at that time. Bruinsma was shot to death by Hoogland in front of the Amsterdam Hilton hotel at four a.m. that morning. To this day, it is not clear what prompted the fight; some say it was simply an escalated argument, while others think it was a liquidation, ordered by Bruinma's competitor Johan Verhoek. Martin Hoogland himself was also shot to death on March 18, 2004.

[edit] After his death

Bruinsma didn't have a will; his brothers and sisters didn't accept anything of his inheritance, so most of it went to his mother. The sail boat 't Amsterdammertje was confiscated by the Dutch tax office.

In 1992, a biography of Bruinsma was published by Parool-journalist Bart Middelburg. In 2004, Gerrard Verhage made a movie, titled The Preacher, which was based on this book.

At October 2, 2003, a former bodyguard of Bruinsma, Charlie da Silva, declared in the television show of Peter R. de Vries, that Mabel Wisse Smit had been a very close friend of Bruinsma's, and had been a regular guest on his yacht during the nights. Wisse Smit, who at that point was engaged to Prince Johan-Friso, had told prime-minister Jan-Peter Balkenende and Queen Beatrix that she had only been vaguely acquainted with Bruinsma. Because of this incident, the Dutch government decided not to request permission of parliament for the marriage, causing prince Johan-Friso to lose his claim to the throne after his marriage.