The No Limit Soldiers part 4: Dawn of a New Era.
Photo © Sinaya Wolfert.
Above a “soldier” of the No Limit Soldier (NLS), crime syndicate out of Koraalspecht Curaçao.
The No Limit Soldiers as numerous reports both in the corporate and the alternative media have shown is an amalgam, of Curacao street gangs, that morphed into what it is today. NLS today is an international crime syndicate that has transcended its street gang origins. However NLS’ muscle is still rooted in the streets, as it continues to draw recruit’s from localized street gangs in Curacao, Holland and Sint Maarten. In the internet age other types of recruit’s are being attracted, even non-street oriented person’s such as student’s and youngsters with jobs. They are in most instances sympathizers and “fan boys and girls” of the syndicate.
NLS is a crime syndicate that is being used by certain narco-cartels based in Colombia. As a franchise that is, essentially a muscle and protection source when huge quantities of cocaine is being shipped from Colombia to Curaçao or Sint Maarten in multi-kilo drug trafficking operations into the Netherlands and the United States. The so called Snowflakes case was just such an operation. In the Snowflakes case 623 kilos of Cocaine was shipped to Curaçao and Sint Maarten, we speak here of a transshipment operation, the ultimate destination being Europe and America. The local police on Sint Maarten “discovered” 170 kilos of Cocaine in a house in Cole Bay which led to the arrest of Miguel Arrindell and several other men, some of those men were members of the NLS. The so called Benzi case is also linked to the Snowflakes case. The Benzi case began with the theft from NLS, of several kilos of Cocaine by Buena Vista City (BVC) shot caller, Erwin Adriano Juliana aka “Jais”, this led to a contract being put on his life by the executives within NLS. Juliana was liquidated at the Hato airport on Curaçao, in the first half of 2014. Another spurious tale being spun by the corporate media in the Netherlands Antilles is the lie that NLS travel to Colombia and purchase huge quantities of Cocaine. Due to the nature of the narcotics trafficking terrain in Colombia and the dominance of Colombian cartels outsiders rarely travel to Colombia if at all to purchase narcotics. The volume of Cocaine in the Snowflakes case point’s to the fact that Miguel Arrindell was a Warehouser of Cocaine for a Colombian cartel, NLS being a franchise that is closely linked to a cartel, functioned as muscle and security in the operation. That operation spiraled out of control resulting in the so called Vesuvius investigation which I went into at length in the post “The No Limit Soldiers Organized Crime in the Netherlands Antilles”.
The Netherlands has a large Afro-Curaçaoan community; cells of the gang are appearing in large Dutch cities such as Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam, Lelystad and Dordrecht. Members from Curaçao cooperate with gang members living in the Netherlands to smuggle cocaine they obtain from Colombian as well as Jamaican narco-trafficking cartels, into major Dutch cities. From there the narcotic is distributed to smaller dealers. NLS as the evidence shows is a franchise that is being used as a distributer or a Distro, in the popular parlance. They are also being used as muscle to ensure the huge shipments of Cocaine coming out of Colombia to specifically Curacao and Sint Maarten are not tampered with by local cowboy criminals. The incidence of NLS absorbing certain local street elements is a brilliant move and is testament of their franchise model. NLS have and are establishing a strong local presence as is attested by their, transformation of prison politics at the Pointe Blanche Prison and their restructuring and strengthening of gang-culture locally, corporatizing it and stressing on obedience to the orders of the executives within NLS.
The following is from the Wikipedia page of the No Limit Soldiers crime syndicate page. I was a bit surprised to see that there is an actual, Wikipedia dedicated to the NLS, testament to their burgeoning popularity.
“Another major activity of the gang are contract killings. The gang is known for operating murder-for-hire squads that are used to eliminate rival drug trafficking operations in Curaçao as well as in the Netherlands. Colombian crime groups as well as criminal organizations from the Dutch Penose are known for doing business with the Afro-Curaçaoan gang in the committing of contract killings”. Wikipedia, not the most reliable information source on the internet, contains clear facts that can be gleaned from police reports, local and international media and the various snitches, that have absconded from NLS. One such snitch/rat being Anthony Bertinus aka “Pencho”. Bertinus stated publicly in an interview with Margriet Martinus who worked for the Dutch magazine ® Niuewe Revu, the photographer for the piece was Sinaya Wolfert.
Ab0ve a photo of a cover of ® Niuewe Revu. The Dutch language magazine specializes on in depth reports with, underworld figures and people considered to be on the fringe as their subjects. The cover above with Colombian cocaine kingpin, Pablo Escobar as the subject translates as “In Search of Pablo Escobar”.
Bertinus stated in an interview with the Volkskrant a Dutch newspaper that he knows who ordered the hit on Helmin Wiels; I will include excerpts from the interview herein. The article was written by Charlotte Huisman dated 8, September 2016. The article was of course written in Dutch, I have translated said article for my readership. The article was captioned as follows: “How Three Rich Casino Bosses made 600,000 Euro’s available To Assassinate Helmin Wiels”.
“Who gave the orders to assassinate Helmin Wiels? Anthony Bertinus knows first-hand. He told his story to the judicial authorities on Curaçao, but his name was “leaked” to the press. “My death sentence”, Anthony stated that’s why I want to tell my side of the story”. “Anthony Spencer Bertinus (50) is in a Dutch jail, behind the glass in a freezing cold room. Bertinus is in jail for an armed robbery on a Marijuana plantation, which he committed several years ago, while he resided in Holland. He was extradited to Holland to serve his sentence. He will talk to us about, his intimate knowledge of the assassination plot, to liquidate Helmin Wiels and the principals and financiers of said plot”.
“Bertinus gave a detailed statement to the Public Prosecutor on Curacao, ‘with the understanding that my name would not be revealed’, but the Public Prosecutor named him in an earlier hearing as a ‘witness’. His name appeared in a report in the local newspaper Amigoe on Curaçao, as a witness”. Commenting on the report in Amigoe Bertinus said: “That felt like my death sentence, now that it doesn’t matter anymore, I want to tell my side of the story”.
“Even behind bars in the Netherlands Bertinus is not safe. He was threatened recently, by a fellow inmate from Curaçao. The man said to him that: ‘Pencho I know that you are marked for death. There is a price on your head and I want to cash it’.
“Bertinus begins to talk….about the most volatile question on Curaçao, ‘who murdered Helmin Wiels?’ Bertinus says that he grew up in Koraalspecht with Burney F aka ‘Nini’, the former campaign manager of Jorge or George Jamaloodin. Jamaloodin was a former Finance Minister in the Cabinet of the then Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte.
Wiels in October 2012 photo © Michael Kooren for Reuters.
Anthony ‘Pencho’ Bertinus: a few months after Helmin Wiels was murdered, in 2013 photo © Sinaya R. Wolfert.
Supporters erected a memorial for Wiels at the spot where, he was murdered
© Sinaya Wolfert.
“More than three years after the murder of Helmin Wiels, the Public Prosecutor on Curacao, launched a preliminary hearing against “Nini. The Public Prosecutor claims that “Nini”, is the link to the three big bosses and the hired killers. Bertinus and “Nini” know each other from their younger years growing up in the same No Limit Soldier stronghold, the Koraalspecht neighborhood”. Bertinus said that “Nini”, was good friends with his elder brothers”.
“Bertinus said in his statement to the Public Prosecutor, that “Nini”, confided in him that: ‘The three gambling bosses each contributed 400,000 Antillean Guilders, which amounted to 1.2 million guilders the equivalent of 600,000 Euro or 650,000 US dollars. “Nini”, told me that Wiels did not keep his mouth shut, about the corruption in the gambling and casino industries on Curacao, which led to his assassination. “Nini” thought that I would adhere to the ‘no snitching’ code. What he didn’t know was that my father, had been friends with Mr. Wiels”.
“Bertinus told us his life story” (some of which I have excerpted in the following). “When I was 17, I moved from Curacao to Rotterdam. In Rotterdam I started a career as an armed robber. I was eventually locked up in prison. After having been released from prison. At the age of 23 I was the European Kickboxing champion. In Rotterdam with its large Antillean community, he met people from his old neighborhood Koraalspecht. Some of them were members of the No Limit Soldiers (NLS)”.
“After his father died Bertinus returned to Curacao. He saw how drastically Curacao had changed. Barely a week after he returned, Helmin Wiels was murdered by members of NLS from his neighborhood”.
“Bertinus went to work as ‘security’ at the “Haifu Minimarket”, in Koraalspecht. He also did odd jobs, for Michael L a member of NLS. One day Michael told Bertinus to go to “Nini”, who they heard had contracted NLS members to execute the contract on Helmin Wiels’ head. The executives in NLS were furious that their people were involved in the hit and wanted to see money! They demanded that “Nini”, pay them 25,000 Euro. “We know that you were instrumental in orchestrating the hit”. Bertinus told ‘Nini’.
“In the case file of the hearing on August 2014, there are three statements by Bertinus against the organizers of the Wiels hit. The actual statements were made by Bertinus in February, 2014. Then he was imprisoned, on suspicion of the attempted extortion of ‘Nini’. Bertinus claims that he has changed his life and wants to do well by his island, Curacao. He says that: “I was shocked, to see children as young as, 13 and 14 years old, walking around with guns and openly sympathizing with the No Limit Soldiers. The new generation of gangsters, do not have an ethical code. There is only senseless violence. He said that Curacao is held, too tightly in the grip of the mafia. ‘Everything is being taken over and robbed, by criminals, the harbor, water and electricity companies, the casinos. My island is the scapegoat, everything is becoming more expensive and there is hardly anyway one can make an honest living. The youngsters in Koraalspecht see the expensive cars, that the gangsters ride around in and they also want to be gangsters. While the gangbangers continue to do the dirty work for the, crime bosses’.
‘I stand by what I say; even if it costs me my life, the crime bosses must not evade justice this time. I do not want my beautiful island to be ruined’.
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