#Janus #recognized #real #Ferry #Bouman #disappointed
Cover of the book ‘drug baron’ (Photo: Paul Tolenaar) Vico Olling and Janus van Wesenbeeck (Photo: Paul Tolenaar) Drug baron by Vico Olling (photo: Willem-Jan Joachems)Next
1/3 Cover of the book ‘drug baron’ (Photo: Paul Tolenaar)
He was once described as the biggest drug lord in the Benelux. Janus van Wesenbeeck from Eindhoven, alias Harry Potter. He only became really famous when Undercover was released on Netflix. The series turned out to be based on his life story: Janus is not happy with that. This is stated in his published biography. “That series has taken over my life and the lives of my children and grandchildren.” The book also features an interesting supporting role for a good acquaintance of his: Peter Gillis.
“Precisely because there are so many similarities, people no longer know what the boundary is between fiction and reality.” And that is what Van Wesenbeeck is most disappointed about. That he goes to the supermarket and is ‘recognized’ by fans, as ‘the real Ferry’.
Or even worse: that he is linked to murders. Crimes he was never charged with. Okay, except for the one thing he confessed to: the assassination of JFK. He still laughs about how he told the police that. He couldn’t laugh about it.
“I was a hot-tempered little bastard.”
These are passages from the lengthy biography of crime journalist Vico Olling. Janus wanted to tell what his truth is, Olling writes. “We had thirty conversations. That started very cautiously. But I was able to ask him everything.”
Janus talked about his childhood at the Doolplein in Eindhoven. Smuggling and the rise of drugs. His first job in his mother’s shop. Riots, violence and discrimination at the residential road camp. “I was a hot-tempered little bastard,” says Janus.
It is the history of the caravan camps told in miniature. Sometimes smooth and very detailed. Lawyers and people from the underworld, such as Mink Kok, also talked about Janus.
“He is open about his family life,” says Olling. “A bit like the Sopranos, actually. Nice to show a person of flesh and blood.” It can therefore be no coincidence that the American TV series The Sopranos about an Italian mafia family is a favorite series of Janus when he is in jail. Just like Jiskefet, he spent twelve years in Belgian prisons.
“I don’t get excited about cars, expensive clothes or jewelry.”
There are plenty of biographies of criminals from the Randstad. A biography about a Brabant criminal is rare. “That’s actually strange, yes,” says Olling.
Criminals prefer to stay under the radar, including Janus. “I don’t get excited about cars, expensive clothes or jewelry.” Janus chooses his family. He is his mother’s caregiver.
There are outings to the zoo, camping in North Holland and he loves barbecue and fishing.
But also someone with a gigantic career in the drug trade. There were times when he had twenty hash campers driving around and his own travel agency with a coach for drug smuggling. Ships, trucks.
They made a lot of money. It disappeared behind fake sockets, in turkeys in the freezer, in electrical boxes outside, in car tires and underground.
“He didn’t have to say anything else, we knew enough.”
And then came that undercover case at the Parelstrand holiday park, across the border from Valkenswaard, more than fifteen years ago. A Belgian politician ‘Mr. Easter’ tipped Janus off that the neighbors were police officers. Holiday park owner Peter Gillis confirmed the suspicion. “He didn’t have to say anything else, we knew enough.”
Janus is still not comfortable with that case because he believes he did not receive a fair trial. It led to a trip to the European Court of Human Rights, where he lost.
The biography also includes his intense account of the attempts on his life. At Best, by family member Piet Pfaff. And at the end of November 2008 in Valkenswaard.
“The doors flew open and I see four men jumping towards us with weapons drawn. I immediately recognize two Uzis and a Glock and hear Shrek shouting: ‘They’re gonna do us, they’re gonna do us!’ Then they started shooting.” Janus shot back and escaped.
Janus is now 62. His childhood sweetheart has died but he has a new relationship. He looks back on an extensive criminal career. “I don’t regret anything, but I wouldn’t want to do it anymore and I wouldn’t be able to do it anymore.”
Omroep Brabant previously compared Janus and Ferry:
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