Dutch Crown Princess Amalia, 18, has been placed under heavy protection after threats of murder and kidnapping likely linked to organized crime, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima said on Thursday.
Amalia had to leave the student dormitory in Amsterdam, and had moved back home and was largely confined to one of the royal family’s palaces in The Hague. The princess is only allowed to go to university under heavy security.
Princess Amalia started her politics and economics degree last month and was living in rented accommodation she shared with several other students in Amsterdam before she had to move back home.
“It has enormous consequences for her life,” Queen Maxima said at a news conference on Thursday during a state visit to Sweden. “It means that she’s not living in Amsterdam and that she can’t really go outside.”
“It has enormous consequences for her life, it means that she’s not living in Amsterdam and that she can’t really go outside.”
Queen Maxima
Last month, several Dutch media outlets reported that the princess, whose formal title is Princess of Orange, was under heightened security due to fears that criminal organizations may target her for kidnapping or an attack.
Princess Catharina Amalia arriving.#Amalia #Amsterdam pic.twitter.com/JTSrCxIhX3
— Ahmed Shalaby (@AhmedShalaby51) September 6, 2022
Targeted by the mafia
Princess Amalia - and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte - are understood to have appeared in organized crime communications, which raised fears that they may be in danger.
Suspicions fall on the "Mocro Mafia," a Moroccan criminal syndicate operating in the Netherlands and Belgium, which also recently threatened the Belgian Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne, who was sent to a safe house where he spent a few days with his family due to a kidnapping threat, according to several Dutch media outlets.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday evening that he could not specify the details of the threats.
"This is terrible news, for her in the first place," Rutte told reporters. "Everyone involved is doing everything possible to make sure she is safe."
Last year, security was stepped up around the Dutch Prime Minister over fears he was a target of organized criminal groups.
Alleged Dutch crime boss Ridouan Taghi, who was arrested in Dubai in 2019, is facing trial over a number of murders in the Netherlands and has been suspected of plotting a violent prison break as well as ordering killings and other criminal offences even while incarcerated.
Taghi, along with 16 others, is alleged to have been part of the “Mocro Mafia,” and is facing trial of charges of murder and attempted murder.
Attempts at normalcy
In an earlier attempt at normalcy, the princess told Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a letter last year that she would decline an annual allowance of about $1.6 million from the government, according to the New York Times.
“I find that uncomfortable as long as I am not doing a lot in return and other students have it much harder,” Amalia wrote. Her status as a member of the royal family, of course, means that money is not an issue.