Willem Frederik Holleeder (born 29 May 1958) is a Dutch criminal. He is nicknamed De Neus (The Nose) because of the size of his nose. In 1983, Holleeder was sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment for his involvement in the kidnapping of Heineken president Freddy Heineken for a 35-million-gulden (approximately €16 million, or US$19.5 million) ransom. Then, in 2007 Holleeder was sentenced to nine years in prison for several counts of extortion, including the extortion of Willem Endstra, who was murdered in 2004 after falling out with Holleeder. He served his sentence in Nieuw Vosseveld and was released on 27 January 2012. He was arrested again in May 2013 (released 12 June 2013), May 2015 and April 2016. In July 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for five murders and one count of manslaughter. Early life Born in 1958 in Amsterdam, Willem Holleeder was the son of Wim Holleeder (1927–1990), an employee at the Heineken breweries who lost his job because of alcoholism. As a teenager, he, along with his classmate Cor van Hout, were part of a gang that worked for landlords in evicting squatters, and may have been involved in several robberies. Cor van Hout was later to become his brother-in-law by marrying Holleeder's sister Sonja. Heineken kidnapping In 1983, their relatively unknown gang abducted the Heineken heir Freddy Heineken (who had purchased back the family ownership of the brewery), along with his driver Ab Doderer. Ultimately, their demand for 35 million guilders (approximately €16 million, or US$19.5 million) was met by the family, although the police were against it. After Freddy Heineken's release, the kidnappers—Cor van Hout, Willem Holleeder, Jan Boelaard, Frans Meijer, and Martin Erkamps—were all eventually traced and served prison sentences. During this period, Holleeder met many other gangsters, including Dennis Stewart and Yvon Lodewijks, who was later accused of ordering the murder of Holleeder's brother-in-law and co-criminal Cor van Hout. After serving the Heineken sentence, Holleeder emerged as a high-profile criminal leader. Several million guilders of the Heineken ransom were never traced, and may have been part of the initial sum he and Cor van Hout hoped to use for a new extortion empire; there are said to have been up to 24 people in his crime ring. Initially, he was in a business relationship with real estate businessman Willem Endstra, possibly involving money laundering. After Cor van Hout was killed in 2003, Holleeder