Profile written by: David Amoruso
Posted in 2002

Klaas Bruinsma would become known as the first Dutch Godfather. His organization would be the first organized and extreme violent group in Holland. He was feared throughout the land and banned or wanted from most countries for his role in numerous drug shipments. He made millions shipping 1000s of kilo's through Europe. But like most flamboyant criminals, Klaas Bruinsma too would fall.

Klaas Bruinsma was born on October 6, 1953 in Amsterdam, Holland. Klaas was born into a wealthy world. His father was the CEO of a major Dutch beverage factory and had made a small fortune by the time Klaas was born. Klaas' father Ton Bruinsma was a complicated man, he had been married twice before marrying the woman that would give birth to his four children (Klaas included). But the marriage didn't last and the woman left them and went back to England where she was originally from. After this third divorce Ton Bruinsma started an affair with his maid Fokje. Fokje eventually became the mother for the four children, raising them and being there at difficult moments. Klaas especially loved her very much. In 1964 the family moved to Blaricum and took residence in a villa there. Klaas' father Ton wanted to toughen his kids for the future and had his own thoughts on how to achieve this. Every Sunday night he would have the children clean out thousands of botles from the factory. He kept telling his kids to toughen up and not show fear. Especially Klaas in which he saw most of himself was the focus of the tougnhing up, he'd order him to get on his bike and get packages far away when both knew the package would be delivered the next day, "It'll make him tough" was his answer. Ton took Klaas out sailing when the local population came out in scores warning them to not go out, it didn't help they'd go out sailing in the middle of a storm, and Klaas loved it. In his teens Klaas went from a good school, where he never showed his face, to a lower educational school. Here he came into contact with hash, he started using it and started dealing it among fellow students. On September 4, 1970 at age 16 Klaas was arrested for the first time. He came off with a warning.

As times moved on Klaas left home and moved in with his grandmother. He went to a new school in Amsterdam where he was hardly ever seen. He also continued his hash business. In 1974 Klaas was kicked out of school because he was never there. He moved out of his grandmother's home and got an appartment in Amsterdam. He decided to fully devote himself to the drugtrade. Via his dealer Thea Moear he supplied drugs to several coffeeshops (no coffee here, just weed and hash) and cafe's. Klaas and Moear eventually started working together more and more, eventually turning into a partnership. In 1976 Klaas was arrested making a drugdeal containing 100 kilos of hash. He was sentenced to six months in prison of which three months on probation. When he got out cops thought Klaas had learned his lesson since they didn't hear anything from him anymore, there was a good reason for this: he had changed identities. Klaas Bruinsma was now called Frans "Lange Frans" van Arkel and actually was more active than ever before. After Thea Moear had left her husband, Hugo Ferrol, and at departure took most of their drugbusiness she joined up with Klaas. Together they started the organization that would live on to this day. People were hired full time and connections were made. Until this moment the Dutch underworld had been a relatively friendly place but from this point it would be the descent into darkness.

Early 1978 Bruinsma and Moear included two new members into the organization, one was Etienne Urka (born in Paramaribo, Suriname) the other was a promising kickbockser named Andre Brilleman. Both these names would later ring a bell with anyone involved/familiar with the Dutch underworld. Bruinsma and Moear also bought two buildings, together worth around 300.000 guilders ($150.000), in Amsterdam and had them fixed up and added security. They also opened several coffeeshops. In late 1979 Bruinsma was arrested for being the mastermind behind a shipment of 1500 kilos of hash from Pakistan to Holland. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, he did 12 months and got out late 1980. Right away he continued expanding his organization. The offices were made ready, one floor was turned into a training ground for the bodyguards and enforcers and another floor was turned into a room where meetings could take place. Bruinsma also added a bodyguard/driver to his personal staff called Geurt Roos. Bruinsma also expanded his customer list, he now supplied drugs to Germany, Belgium, France, Scandinavian countries and England. Bruinsma's client in England was Roy Adkins. And as Bruinsma's illegal empire was growing he also started setting up legit fronts. And of course building constructions so he could launder all his dirty money.

As the year 1983 began Bruinsma had proven to be a relativly good boss. His bodyguards and enforcers had participated in several violent incidents as well as hits and Bruinsma was winning both the business competition with Hugo Ferrol as well as the violent one. But even after all this Bruinsma was still considered a rich mama's boy by the Amsterdam Underworld. Some even thought that not Bruinsma was boss but Thea Moear ran everything, which was not true. With this rich boy reputation Bruinsma was still a target for takeover by certain criminals. But things would change very fast when Bruinsma proved his toughness in a shootout with four other criminals at the house of one of his former soldiers. The soldier in question was Pietje Pieterse who was pissed off at Bruinsma because he was bought out with not enough money, as a result he stole two stashes filled with 600 kilos of Bruinsma's hash. When he invited Bruinsma to his house and told him that he had back up upstairs from 3 known tough guys so that Bruinsma shouldn't try anything funny. He then told Bruinsma about the stolen stashes, in the argument that followed Bruinsma shot Pieterse in the hip. Immediately the three tough guys came downstairs, Bruinsma shot a warning shot in the air which didn't help. One of the guys came running towards him, Bruinsma fired a rain of bulets his way and the man fell to the floor. Then another guy fired three shots at Bruinsma all hitting him and sending him to the floor. On the floor he was held in a choke hold by one of the guys who had a grazed head shot wound and was dizzy. Bruinsma yelled: "no police, no police call an ambulance", after a struggle that was what happened. The guys who were able to flee did so the others were left in their own blood. With medics, detectives, one dead body and Pieterse wounded a shot to bits Bruinsma said to Pieterse before he was carried off by the medics: "Jesus Christ Piet, how come you always have such a mess in your home?"

At the trial a few months later on January 31, 1984 Bruinsma was sentenced to five years in prison (later he managed to lower the sentence). The guys involved in the shoot out were all put on the death list of the Bruinsma Organization. One of the guys was strangled twice in prison while awaiting sentencing, after the trial he fled to the US. Years later Bruinsma had reduced the penalty to payment of $600.000. The two would meet once more in a shopping street in Amsterdam for the rich, seeing eye to eye Bruinsma clapped his hands and within seconds he was surrounded by bodyguards, "See this guy boys? Remember this face because this is the guy who has to pay". Pieterse also fled Holland to Switserland, his death sentence would be reduced to a sentence that would leave him riding a wheelchair. With the final guy the matter would be settled. On December 19, 1984 Dutch courts sentenced Bruinsma to three years in prison, two years less than innitially. While in prison Bruinsma got a visit from his father Ton, he cried at seeing his son in this situation which Klaas later would say was a sign of how weak he was. On April 30 of that year a few months after his visit to his son Ton Bruinsma would die at age 63.

When Bruinsma got out of prison he decided that as a professional criminal it would be better to check into a hotel instead of having a steady home. Bruinsma and his bodyguards at first spend a lot of time in the Okura Hotel, but after the hotel direction started asking Bruinsma to change his behaviour, he would come down into the lobby, bare footed and wearing only his robe surrounded by 8 to 10 bodyguards dressed in designer suits and talking through walky talkies, he left. After checking out of the Okura Bruinsma made the prestigious Amsterdam Amstel Hotel his home. He would stay in the suite next to the Royal suite which was for foreign kings or presidents. When these people would come down Bruinsma would stay at another hotel so his bodyguards wouldn't get into arguments with the bodyguards of the important/royal guests. Bruinsma also beefed up his security. At this stage of his career Bruinsma couldn't leave Holland, he was banned from the US and other nations had asked for his arrest. Bruinsma also reorganized his staff. His underboss Thea Moear was demoted and her place was taken over by Etienne Urka. He also structured his divisions, the division drugs would be headed by Roy Adkins, he put in place the staff for the division investments who would laundry all the drugmoney, the enforcement divison was a group of hitmen who either took the contract or passed it on down the ladder, a PR division which dealt with keeping the Organization out of the spotlight and when it did happen keeping the damage in control, also added would be the division gambling (slot and game machines) headed by Sam Klepper and his right hand John Mieremet.

With everything in place Bruinsma made his power felt. From prison Bruinsma had ordered his former soldier Andre Brilleman dead after he found out he had stolen from him. Brilleman was found in a steel drum filled with cement, his face was shot up from close range. Later it was found out Brilleman was lured to a secure house where he was hit unconscious by 6 men waving baseball bats. Then they took him to an abandoned warehouse where he regained consciousness, they cut off his cock and used a saw to cut of his legs all while he was alive. They then put him in the steel drum and filled it up with cement and dumped it in the river. After this Bruinsma had total loyalty from any guy on the street.

By the late 1980s had totally isolated himself from the dirty work. His Organization had grown to a full time staff of 200. He was the main drugsupplier in Europe and made millions upon millions. Everything went great and Bruinsma started thinking about retirement. But before his retirement Bruinsma wanted to make one last big shipment, the big heap as it would later be called. A shipment of 45.000 kilos of hash, worth an estimate 400 million guilders (around $250 million). The deal was set in place and as Bruinsma awaited it he got more and more paranoid but his people took it for what it was, a big shipment was coming who wouldn't be a bit paranoid? The shipment got through and was brought to a warehouse where it was kept untill it would be further distributed. It looked like Bruinsma would get his retirement but on Saturady 24 February, 1990 police found the big heap. The entire heap of 45.000 kilos was burned by law enforcement, no one was arrested. After this Bruinsma started going down, blaming people and fining them because they fucked up. Roy Adkins was fined and they eventually got a flaming argument and had a shoot out in Yab Yum (a high class Amsterdam brothel). Bruinsma was coming down from his high and told everyone that the Underworld was "going to pay for all the shit they did to me (him)." Bruinsma went for it big he wanted the Amsterdam Underworld all to himself. Every coffeeshop in Amsterdam was to use his slotmachines if they refused a cop said: "He'd sent by some Yugoslavians with Uzis". He also made his move for the Red Light District. Bruinsma started sliding down even more, under influence of cocaine he'd shoot up bars and bother heroine whores who happened to look at him funny, he acted like an arrogant punk not like a boss.

As he acted like he did he started making more enemies and lost support among his own troops. Bruinsma started attracting attention from the Dutch IRS and investigative commissions. Bruinsma knew his end had/would come but he didn't care, he became a big risk for the Organization. In September 1990 Roy Adkins was shot gangland style while he was having a drink in a bar, never solved but everyone knows who was behind the hit: Klaas Bruinsma. Mixed up in cocaine and paranoia Bruinsma's position was taken over more and more by Etienne Urka. Urka commanded the respect from the troops and was running most of the day to day business. With law enforcement and the IRS focussing all their powers on Bruinsma and not to mention all the Underworld enemies the Organization decided it was best for all to take their hands off of Bruinsma. Bruinsma didn't know this, he was still on his trip. On the night of 27 June, 1991 Bruinsma was having fun at a bar at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel. Inside he was talking with several Underworld figures. Also there was Martin Hoogland an ex cop who had slided into the Underworld and became a vicious killer working with a group of Yugoslavians which leader had been whacked by Bruinsma. In the conversation Bruinsma told Hoogland that "I'll eat you too". The conversation continued untill four AM in the morning. At that point a drunk and coked up Bruinsma tried getting to his taxi. He was about to get in when some of the guys he had been talking to told him they'd give him a lift. Walking towards a group which contained Hoogland Bruinsma was overheard yelling: "Have a little respect will ya', who do you think I am?" followed by: "Don't expect me to be frightened because you're an ex cop". Next thing shots were heard. Bruinsma was hit from a distance of fifty centimeters in the chest, he fell on his back arms spread across the ground, the second shot was fired from close range under his chin, a third shot was fired from close range behind his right ear. At age 37 Klaas Bruinsma the first Dutch 'Godfather' was dead.