Four Dutch arrested for large-scale 'designer drug' trafficking

Four Dutch persons were arrested in the Netherlands and Croatia last week as part of a major international investigation into large-scale drug trafficking, led by the German police. The Dutch are suspected of delivering psychoactive substances, popularly called designer drugs, to thousands of German buyers, the Dutch police said in a statement. This involved at least 15 thousand shipments, according to the police.

A 1.5 year long German investigation led them to the four Dutch suspects, after which the German authorities requested the Dutch police's aid. On Tuesday, June 5th, a 65-year-old man from Amsterdam and a 66-year-old man from Huizen were arrested in the Netherlands. Two men from Amsterdam, aged 26 and 31, were arrested in Croatia that same day. Three of them are still in custody, the fourth was conditionally released during his arraignment. He remains a suspect. Germany asked that the four suspects be extradited to them.

On that same day, some 125 Dutch police officers searched 12 locations in Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Almere, Diemen, Badhoevedorp, Utrecht, Apeldoorn, Huizen, Hoofddorp and Steenbergen. Among other things, they found and seized kilograms of pills and powders from a warehouse in Almere, and 40 thousand euros in cash elsewhere. 

Designer drugs ar popular in the nightlife circuit, according to the police. These drugs often contain psychoactive substances that do not fall directly under the Opium Act.