Urvin "Nuto" Wawoe
PHILIPSBURG--Urvin "Nuto" Wawoe, who has consistently denied being one of the leaders of notorious drug gang No Limit Soldiers (NLS), has been sentenced to life in prison. A judge of the Court of First Instance read this verdict on Tuesday morning, handing down the most severe penalty in the Dutch justice system to a man who stood trial three months ago accused of ordering seven cold-blooded assasinations in Dutch St. Maarten, French St. Martin and Curaçao between 2014 and 2017.
He was also suspected of large-scale drug trafficking, money laundering and being the leader of a criminal organisation. The indictment comprised more than a dozen separate charges. Wawoe was found guilty of the drug trafficking charges and being a gang leader, as well as most of the murder accusations. The judge found Wawoe guilty of murder of Kevin “Bones” Metura in French Cul-de-Sac on February 7, 2016, and the murder of A.R.L. “Nino” Browne-Thewet at his car wash in Sucker Garden on March 14, 2017. He was also found guilty of being behind the attempted murder of Kimoy Gumbs in French Quarter on April 8, 2016; and the attempted murders of Thaddeus “Static” Nunes and his twin brother Marini “Addict” Nunes in Philipsburg on November 5, 2016. According to the prosecution, these hits were revenge for the murder of Wawoe's girlfriend, Latoya “Nuta” Flanders, who was gunned down in front of her house in French Quarter on November 5, 2015. Prosecutors believe his girlfriend was murdered because his enemies could not get him in Dutch jail, where he was transfered after surviving an attempt om his life in the Point Blanche prison in 2014. The judge found that these crimes were proven based on secretly-recorded conversations of Wawoe in prison, and recovered data from encrypted messaging systems PGP Safe. The judge found Wawoe not guilty of orchestrating the so-called Hato shooting on July 15, 2014, which claimed the lives of Erwin “Junni Djais” Juliana and his cousin Shentley “Champi” Arnhem. Seven innocent bystanders were also injured when gunmen wielding automatic weapons opened fire outside the arrival hall of Curaçao’s airport. Juliana was the leader of criminal organisation Buena Vista City (BVC), which reportedly had an ongoing war with NLS at the time. He was also acquitted of the murder of Bling Bling Crew leader Omar Jones in the Point Blanche prison on August 31, 2016. Wawoe has two weeks to appeal Tuesday's verdict, which would send the case to be tried again before the Joint Court of Justice.
