He organised a small circle of like-minded men of police and even professional backgrounds into a self-sufficient gang that carried out at least one multimillion-dollar robbery, and the initial stage of a bizarre extortion plot that echoed a notorious and still-unsolved series of multiple robbery-homicides.
A lifelong gun fanatic, he repeatedly retained and then was caught with illegal weapons that implicated him, with his final downfall coming when he shot dead the head of a family of diamond merchants that he and his partner apparently tried to rob.
[2][3] By this time under a cloud, he quit the Gendarmerie along with an accomplice, Robert Beijer, eventually setting up a private detective bureau Agence de Recherches et d'Informations, before Bouhouche left and bought a gun shop.
A small framed man who often wore sunglasses, Bouhouche enjoyed hobbies such as mountaineering and skydiving, however his lifelong obsession was shooting and he participated in private paramilitary training with Far Right acquaintances, these included fellow members of Westland New Post, an organisation given close attention by the Brabant killers investigation for reasons independent of his involvement with it.
Bouhouche had thought up the extortion scheme in the late seventies and involved several friends in concrete pre-preparations, which progressed to the construction of a secret escape tunnel from a building where the ransom payment was to be made.
Bouhouche's physical size and facial features not fitting any description compiled from early unmasked encounters with three main members of the Brabant killers gang weighs against his active participation, especially in 1985.
[2] On 15 September 2000 Bouhouche was freed on parole, with the authorities (embarrassed the previous year by failing to track down a fugitive associate living openly in Florida) seemingly having little interest in pressuring him for information.