MOROCCO: DEATH PENALTY REAFFIRMED FOR DUTCH HITMEN IN CAFÉ LA CRÈME SHOOTING

January 15, 2026:

Two Dutch nationals convicted over the 2017 Café La Crème shooting in Marrakech have again been sentenced to death in Morocco, their lawyer Bob Kaarls told Dutch media on January 12, 2026. The pair - Shardyone S. (34) ed Edwin R.M. (30) - were accused of carrying out a mistaken hit on a terrace, which ended up killing the son of a senior Moroccan judge.
Nicknamed the «Rasta shooters», the two men were convicted of being hired by «Mocro Mafia» drug lord Ridouan Taghi to eliminate one of his rivals in November 2017.
They had already been handed death sentences in 2019 and 2023, but in 2024 Morocco’s Supreme Court referred the case back to a Casablanca court, ruling that it had not sufficiently examined the perpetrators’ «role and attitude».
Kaarls said he will file a new cassation appeal and pursue legal action to overturn the death penalty. If that fails, he would seek a commutation, noting that a life sentence could allow the men to serve their time in the Netherlands.
For the record, the two suspects were arrested shortly after the attack that shocked Marrakech. They initially denied involvement but later cooperated with investigators, stating that their intended target was Moroccan-Dutchman Mustapha el F., known as Moes «No Limits», who narrowly escaped death after switching seats just before the shooting.
El F., who is linked to a club in Zoetermeer frequented by criminals in the Netherlands, owned the café where the shooting took place and was seen as an enemy of Taghi. He was later arrested as well.
Taghi was arrested in December 2019 after hiding in Dubai since 2016. He was detained in a joint operation involving Moroccan, Emirati, and Dutch police and later extradited to the Netherlands. In 2024, Taghi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.