Research by RTL Nieuws and Follow the Money shows that Ridouan Taghi's son, Faissal Taghi, may be involved in money laundering through the El Chapo record label. El Chapo released music from rappers Boef, Lijpe and Ismo. There are indications that El Chapo Productions, an Amsterdam-based record label named after a Mexican drug lord, has links to Dubai, particularly Taghi's son. Robby Roks, Associate Professor of Criminology at Erasmus School of Law, argues to RTL Nieuws that this is a case of undermining.
Record label's link to criminal
The police managed to crack the encrypted messaging service Ennetcom code in 2017. This created the possibility of reading along with messages from the criminal circuit. According to an investigator, among these messages, communication was discovered between El Chapo Productions and "Faissal", with the latter referring to Ridouan Taghi's son named Faissal Taghi. Thus, a message addressed to Ridouan Taghi reads: “Hahahaha, look at my plan. We are managers, I faissal abdo and you!!! (...) Boef's clip may not be released until elchapo production is ready. We will earn at least 100,000 euros minimum, hahaha really, those are my plans!!!”
According to criminologist Robby Roks, laundering drug money through a record label is a sign of subversion. "Because in this example we see very clearly the interweaving of the underworld and the upper world. When money laundering is proven, you see criminals giving drug money a seemingly legal origin through a legal structure, in this case through a record label.”
More branches of the same tree
Despite media portrayals, Roks states that rap culture is not the problem in this case. “We naturally see such constructions [music labels, red.] more widely. Consider, for example, of criminal interference in (indoor) football clubs, but also in the form of investments in real estate and in hotel and catering industry.”
The rap culture seems to be more vibrant in neighbourhoods with higher crime rates. Rappers rap about their lives. '”It is music from the street, about the street, and stems from neighbourhoods where we see certain problems. These are the neighbourhoods where we see above average crime levels. In that sense, they are more branches of the same tree", argues criminologist Roks.
Robby Roks researches various forms of crime, such as juvenile crime, violence and organised crime.
- Associate professor
- More information
Click here for the entire RTL News report (in Dutch).