Raymildo Landveld (19) shot dead in car on Krootstraat

Raymildo Landveld, a 19-year-old man from Amsterdam, was shot dead on Wednesday evening, 2 May 2018, on Krootstraat in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. At the time, he had no fixed home address and worked for the municipal cleaning service. A few days before his death, he had taken a grey Mercedes-Benz Vito that he had found unattended with the key still inside. Raymildo used the van to drive around and probably also as a temporary place to sleep. What he most likely did not know was that the van was being used for drug transports. It contained a hidden compartment large enough to carry hundreds of kilos of cocaine; at the time of the shooting, around one kilo of cocaine was still hidden inside. On the evening of 2 May, Raymildo drove the van through Amsterdam-Zuidoost while two friends followed him in a Renault Mégane. At around 23:05, they arrived on Krootstraat, where one of the friends tried to borrow money from acquaintances. Raymildo stayed inside the Mercedes Vito. Shortly afterwards, Maikel A. arrived at the scene. According to the court of appeal, he had set out to recover the van by force. He began shooting almost immediately. Raymildo was shot dead inside the van. One of his friends, who was sitting in another car, was also shot and seriously wounded in, among other places, his leg and chest. Maikel A. also fired at a young couple who happened to be driving past; they managed to avoid the bullets and were not hit. Prosecutors treated the shooting as violence linked to the drug trade, but Raymildo himself was regarded as someone who probably did not know what was hidden inside the van. In May 2019, Maikel A. was arrested. He denied involvement, but the court did not find his denial credible. In January 2021, the district court sentenced him to 20 years in prison for manslaughter, three attempted manslaughters, illegal possession of a firearm, drug possession and preparing drug trafficking. The Public Prosecution Service considered that sentence too low and appealed. On 14 July 2022, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal sentenced Maikel A. to 30 years in prison. The court found that he had acted purposefully, that he had enough time during the journey to think about what he was going to do, and that he had not only killed Raymildo but had also put several other people in serious danger. In October 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction and the 30-year sentence. That made the sentence final.