A group of dozens of masked, heavily armed men descended on a small Dutch village in the early hours of Tuesday morning, killing a security guard, shooting two police officers, and triggering a massive manhunt that ended with 34 arrests across the Netherlands. Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel described the violence as unprecedented: "That you have hordes of dozens of young people going armed through the streets of a village and immediately opening fire on police — that is unheard of and new."
At around 4am, two vans pulled up on the Ewijkseweg in Overasselt, a quiet village in the eastern province of Gelderland, and a large group of masked men emerged, some carrying heavy firearms. Surveillance footage captured them moving toward a farm on the outskirts of the village, the home of a family linked to drug trafficking. They stopped at a car parked nearby and fired five shots, killing a 51-year-old man from the nearby town of Wijchen who had reportedly been hired as a private security guard. When officers arrived in response to reports of a suspicious situation, they too came under fire; two were wounded, one of them critically, though both have since been confirmed out of danger. Police, including special intervention units with helicopters and dogs, then pursued suspects through gardens, maize fields, motorways and as far as a train station in Nijmegen.
By the end of the day, 34 people had been arrested at multiple locations, including along the A73 and A76 motorways and in a maize field near the neighbouring village of Nederasselt. Those detained hold Dutch, Belgian, French and Algerian nationalities. They face charges ranging from murder and manslaughter to preparation of a kidnapping. Dutch media, citing sources in criminal circles, reported that the raid was connected to a dispute over a missing shipment of cocaine — reportedly 812 kilograms — linked to fugitive Dutch drug lord Jos Leijdekkers, widely known as "Bolle Jos." Leijdekkers, one of the Netherlands' most wanted criminals with prior convictions for international cocaine trafficking, is believed to have been living in Sierra Leone for several years. Prosecutors declined to confirm any link to Leijdekkers or to name those who may have ordered the attack, stating only that the same property had been targeted in a shooting the previous year.
The property at the centre of the violence has a long criminal history. A drug laboratory was discovered there following a fire in 2019, armed men appeared at its gate in 2024, and last year someone fired 25 rounds from a Kalashnikov at the entrance and left photographs of a family member as a warning. The resident identified by Dutch media as Jan G. was convicted of drug offences earlier this year and sentenced to four years in prison, but remains free while appealing the verdict.
The lockdown order urging residents to remain indoors with windows and doors shut was lifted late Tuesday evening after police confirmed no further suspects were believed to be hiding in the area. Mayor Joerie Minses of the municipality of Heumen, of which Overasselt is a part, called the events "un-Dutch" and said the community had been shaken by "a form of extreme violence that is totally unacceptable." Minister Van Weel acknowledged that deeply rooted organised crime networks — which he described as drug cartels and mafias operating across borders — have developed strong logistical and financial foundations inside the Netherlands, while stopping short of calling the country a narco-state. Investigations are continuing.