Gang Shootout in Overasselt Leaves One Dead, Two Police Injured: 34 Arrested, Including Foreign Nationals

A pre-dawn drug-related shootout in the Gelderland village of Overasselt has left a 51-year-old security guard dead and two police officers wounded, with Dutch authorities arresting 34 suspects – several of them foreign nationals – by Tuesday evening.

According to regional police chief Jolanda Aalbers, officers responded to reports of suspicious activity around 4:00 AM at a house on the Ewijkseweg. Surveillance footage shows two vans pulling up, from which dozens of masked men emerged, some carrying heavy firearms. They approached a car parked near a farmhouse linked to a family allegedly involved in drug trafficking, fired five times, then retreated. When the first police unit arrived, they were immediately shot at.

"That was an incredibly traumatic incident. They had to rescue their colleagues and get them to safety. I have tremendous respect for what they did," Aalbers said (NOS). The two injured officers are now out of life-threatening condition.

The deceased is a security guard from Wijchen who had been hired by the farmhouse residents. He was found shot dead in the car.

By evening, the shelter-in-place order for Overasselt residents was lifted, though police maintain extra surveillance overnight and ask anyone spotting suspicious activity to call 112 immediately (NOS).

Foreign suspects and broader network

Regional prosecutors confirmed that among those arrested were individuals from the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Algeria (Al Jazeera). Weapons, data storage devices, and vehicles were seized at the scene.

The shooting appears to be part of a "long-running" conflict prosecutors said: the same house had been hit by a dozen bullets in a single incident last year, leading to two convictions.

Local media link the incident to the criminal underworld of Dutch drug lord Jos Leijdekkers, known as "Bolle Jos" ("Fat Jos"), one of the Netherlands' most wanted fugitives, previously convicted for international cocaine trafficking.

What this means for internationals

While Overasselt is a quiet village near the German border, this incident underscores that organised drug violence – more commonly associated with Rotterdam or Amsterdam – can erupt anywhere in the Netherlands, including in places with large expat populations like the nearby Nijmegen region.

For internationals living here, the practical takeaway is reassuring: the police acted swiftly, 34 arrests were made, and there is no ongoing threat to the general public. The scale of the arrests – and the fact that foreign nationals were involved – also highlights how cross-border criminal networks operate in the Netherlands, making it a country of both residence and transit for international organised crime.

Burgemeester Minses of Heumen (the municipality that includes Overasselt) described the events as "on-Nederlands" (un-Dutch) – a phrase that reflects how shocking such extreme violence is for a country not accustomed to gang shootouts on its quiet country roads.

Police continue forensic investigations at multiple locations, including agricultural fields. The Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie) will lead the prosecution phase, likely seeking extended remand for the suspects.