The President of Sierra Leone fired the head of immigration service on Tuesday, after footage showing the chief with a drug lord surfaced on the internet.

Footage published by the Follow the Money investigative outlet and Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad showed the Sierra Leonean chief of immigration, Alusine Kanneh, receiving a birthday present from the fugitive Dutch drug lord Johannes Leijdekkers at a dinner party allegedly in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown.

The Head of Immigration was relieved from his duties on the same day the reports came out, however, authorities did not disclose the reason behind the dismissal, amid speculations that Kanneh and other officials were helping Leijdekkers build his influence.

Days before the event, the immigration ministry, under Kanneh’s leadership, launched an investment-for-citizenship program called Go-for-Gold. This initiative provides a fast-track to citizenship within 90 days for investors who contribute $140,000 (£108,000), while the standard naturalization process requires eight years of residency.

Leijdekkers holds a Turkish passport, having previously lived there after fleeing from Dutch authorities, and whether he also possesses Sierra Leonean documentation remains unknown.

A Guardian investigation in February confirmed that Leijdekkers had been in the country since at least 2022, attending nightclubs and house parties, while a Reuters report in January placed him at a New Year’s Day church service in President Julius Maada Bio’s hometown, seated near the leader’s daughter, Agnes Bio, with whom he is believed to be in a relationship.

At a January press conference, Sierra Leonean police stated that their investigation identified the man in the church service footage as Omar Sheriff, while the country’s police chief, William Fayia Sellu, refused to confirm whether Sheriff and Leijdekkers were the same person.

Leijdekkers, known by multiple aliases and nicknames, including Bolle Jos, was sentenced in absentia by a Rotterdam court last June to 24 years in prison for six drug transports totaling 7,000kg of cocaine, an armed robbery in Finland, and ordering the murder of an associate, while a court in Belgium handed him a 10-year sentence in absentia in September over an attempt to smuggle drugs through the port of Antwerp in 2020.

Dutch officials continue discussions to extradite Leijdekkers, despite Sierra Leone lacking a formal extradition treaty with the Netherlands.