Police loses 175k in undercover op.

A briefcase containing €175,000 was lost by the police in an undercover operation. Despite the briefcase having been fitted out with a tracking device, the money was still lost, the Telegraaf reports. 

The money came from the Ministry of Justice, and was meant to be used by an undercover cop to buy 280,000 ecstasy pills from a drugs gang in a Van der Valk hotel next to the A1 at Apeldoorn. The incident happened months ago, according to the paper, and has been hushed up until now.

The American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) tipped the Dutch police to use this method of operation. Two Portuguese detectives were used as 'narcs', who were instructed to buy the pills with the Justice money, which was more than €200,000 to begin with.

The operation was large-scale with two observation teams from the National Investigators, an arrest team and a technical support team taking part in the action. It is unclear how the money was lost so easily with all this supervision.

According to the Telegraaf, the briefcase was found behind an arch of a café in Twello. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice told the Telegraaf that a small amount was found with one of the seven suspects apprehended in the hotel. The remaining €175,000 is still missing, however.

The Public Prosecution Authority decided not to prosecute the suspects for whitewashing. According to one of the suspects' lawyers, the OM's decision may be to avoid difficult questions about the operation from the court. The fact tat the money has disappeared also means that finding possible evidence for whitewashing is not possible.