Funeral director gets prison for smuggling methamphetamine chemicals in hearse
The Oost-Brabant court sentenced a funeral director to 3.5 years in prison for transporting chemicals to make methamphetamine in his hearse. The 38-year-old Hoogvlied man was also found guilty of running a drug lab in his funeral home in Rotterdam.
The police pulled over the hearse on the highway near Beugen in May last year after noticing that it was very heavily loaded. They checked the vehicle and found 675 kilograms of chemicals that could be used to produce crystal meth in the cargo space.
Further investigation revealed the “half-burned down drug lab” in the funeral home, equipped with barrels, stoves, and plans for making drugs. According to the court, camera footage and analyzed chats showed that the man had been producing hard drugs since the month before he got caught.
The court was very critical of the fact that the man used his funeral home as cover for a drug lab. “A company in that sector must deal with the deceased and their relatives with the utmost respect and care,” the court said. “The suspect did not do this. He showed no respect whatsoever for the deceased and treated the feelings of surviving relatives with disrespect.”
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had asked the court to also ban the man from working int he funeral industry for 11 years. The judge called that a “very understandable request” but said he could not impose that penalty because the Opium Act doesn’t allow it.
The case against another suspect, a 50-year-old man from Berkel Enschot who was the passenger in the hearse when the police turned it over, will appear before the court at a later date. According to Omroep Brabant, the court was supposed to handle the case two weeks ago, but it got postponed when the suspect had a panic attack.
