Rotterdam police arrest woman, 45, for hiring a hitman
The police have arrested a 45-year-old woman as part of an investigation into a contract killing ordered via the dark web. Rotterdam police said she is suspected of “involvement” in hiring a hitman. The police did not disclose whether she was the one who actually tried to buy a murder.
The woman has no registered address and was arrested on Friday. The case came to light after an RTL Nieuws investigation into a contract-killing site that proved to be an elaborate scam. This was one of seven hits ordered via that site.
According to the broadcaster, this murder was ordered against a Rotterdam entrepreneur. Having gone through a bitter divorce, the man suspects that the order originated with his ex-in-laws. “I am incredibly relieved that the police have identified a suspect,” he told RTL Nieuws. “I lived in uncertainty for a year. I was constantly looking over my shoulder.”
The broadcaster has detailed messages regarding the contract killing targeting the Rotterdam entrepreneur. Among other things, the person ordering the murder wrote: “I want you to burn him alive and make sure he doesn’t survive it.” Upon learning that this would cost $9,000, they wrote: “How much will it cost to chop off his arms and legs? Or how much would it cost to shoot him?”
They shared a recent photo of the man and his address. “Keep in mind that the house might have an alarm system and that his mother, who is over 70, lives with him. The only requirement is that he must be dead; I don’t care what you do to the mother.”
The person ended up transferring nearly $1,400 in Bitcoin for the Rotterdam man’s murder, according to RTL.
The murder never happened. The contract killing website turned out to be a scam. But that does not mean that trying to order a murder is not a criminal offense. In 2021, Imram M. from The Hague was sentenced to eight years in prison for ordering a contract killing on the same site. The court ruled that the fact that the murder plot failed was not because of M., who did order a killing in a “cold and businesslike manner.”