A source in Freetown has accused Jos Leijdekkers of being involved in the abduction and death of Allan Jalloh, a 40-year-old man who was kidnapped in broad daylight. Wurie Jalloh spoke to The Economist about his brother, who went missing after he and three companions, including a Cypriot footballer, stayed at the Pearl Hotel in October 2025.
On a Saturday afternoon, the group went to a nearby shop for beer. When they discovered they had no cash, Wurie left to retrieve some from the hotel. Upon his return, he found their blue Ford with three doors open and no one inside.
A fruit seller informed Wurie that a black SUV had arrived, from which three men in balaclavas emerged—one white and two black. The white man shot out a tyre of their car, forcing the three men inside his vehicle before driving off. An hour later, Allan called Wurie, claiming that he needed to withdraw money to pay the abductors $4,000 each.
Wurie later withdrew the cash and handed it over, but that night, Allan’s phone was switched off and has never been turned back on. Wurie quickly took to social media, contacted journalists, and reported the abduction to the police, but claims officers requested $400 for fuel and took no further action. He initially believed this was a case of mistaken identity, but after a month of searching, he was told by police that “this was ordered from higher up.” Wurie concluded, “My brother was murdered.”
A government source, speaking anonymously, provided a starkly different narrative, claiming Allan was a petty criminal involved in drug trafficking. They alleged that Allan had spent 13 years in Sweden learning how to smuggle drugs before returning to Sierra Leone and starting to steal cocaine from larger consignments.
According to the source, Allan and his associates took cocaine from warehouses at night, sometimes replacing it with flour, and later smuggled it out in used car parts and rented boats bound for other West African countries. An alleged incident involved a significant shipment, meant for the Middle East, being discovered to contain flour, leading to further violence.
The source claimed that Leijdekkers’ warehouses were attacked soon after and that some of his contacts in Sierra Leone’s security forces were apprehended, identifying 22 men in total. Wurie stated that two masked men, one a police sergeant and the other military police, searched his brother’s liquor shop on the day he disappeared. “Jos Leijdekkers has Sierra Leone wrapped around his finger,” the source alleged before breaking off contact after their car was vandalised.
While Wurie maintains his brother was kidnapped and murdered, the government source insists it was a case of criminal retaliation. No independent investigation has confirmed either story, and Wurie’s calls for an official inquiry have gone largely ignored.
Regardless of the circumstances surrounding Allan Jalloh’s disappearance—whether a mistaken abduction, targeted retribution, or something else entirely—his family is left with unanswered questions, grief, and a painful void. In Freetown, where power and wealth can shield some while endangering others, Allan’s story has become a cautionary tale about violence and impunity in a city where even those connected to the powerful find themselves with few options for answers.
