Man detained on Caribbean island for 2021 murder of famed crime reporter Peter R. de Vries

Dutch prosecutors said Monday authorities on the Caribbean island of Curacao have detained a man “who played a leading role” in the high-profile murder of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries four years ago.

De Vries was gunned down in broad daylight on a busy Amsterdam street in July 2021, sparking an outpouring of grief and concern over the influence of organized crime in the Netherlands.  

“The 39-year-old man was detained on Monday in Willemstad on Curacao,” the Dutch Public Prosecution Service said.

“The man is suspected of playing a leading role in a criminal organisation that aimed to commit violence and which was behind the murder of De Vries, among other things,” prosecutors said in a statement.

A Dutch court last year handed down lengthy jail sentences to three of the main suspects in the murder, sentencing the organizer of the hit to 30 years, while two other men received 28 years. Three other men received sentences of between 10 to 14 years for complicity in the murder.

The latest suspect, born in Curacao but who had Dutch nationality, has been behind bars on the island since 2014.

“Detectives continued their investigation into those who ordered the hit on De Vries,” the prosecution service said.

“The man emerged as a suspect during the course of the investigation into the higher echelons of the criminal organization,” it said.

The man will be transferred to the Netherlands soon where he will appear before a judge, prosecutors added.

De Vries, who reportedly had the phrase “On bended knee is no way to be free” tattooed on his calf, made his name as a crime journalist who reported on and wrote a bestselling book about the 1983 kidnapping of beer magnate Freddy Heineken. Later in his career he campaigned tirelessly to resolve cold cases.

De Vries also won an Emmy in 2008 for his coverage of the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba.

The celebrity journalist then moved into television, where he ran his own crime program called “Peter R. de Vries, Crime Reporter.”

Prosecutors believed the hit to be linked to De Vries’s role as advisor to a witness against drug kingpin Ridouan Taghi.

But the court last year’s judgement ruled that since Taghi was not part of the trial, a definite link could not be established between that case, known as Marengo, and the De Vries murder trial.

De Vries however revealed in 2019 that authorities had informed him he was on a hit-list drawn up by Taghi, who in February last year received a life sentence over a series of murders committed by his gang.

During the 2022 trial for two of the suspects,  close-circuit television images showed de Vries being shot. The court saw images at a distance of de Vries crossing the street, a figure running behind him and then the moment when the journalist was shot and fell to the ground. De Vries’ daughter Kelly asked to leave the courtroom as the footage was shown.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.