Gov't pulls plug on expensive multi-disciplinary task force against undermining crime

The government has pulled the plug on a special team involving six different investigative services aimed at tackling undermining crime. There is no political support for the project, which cost tens of millions of euros, so the team is being disbanded, NOS reports.

The National Cooperation against Undermining Crime (NSOC) unit involved the police, the Public Prosecution Service (OM), Customs, the Tax Authority, the FIOD, and the Koninklijke Marechaussee. Their assignment was to jointly develop methods against organized crime. The NSOC is the successor of a collaborative team, the Multidisciplinary Intervention Team (MIT), set up after the murder of defense attorney Derk Wiersum

In March, then-outgoing Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz of Justice and Security extended the collaboration for another two years, saying that good results had already been achieved. The team gained new insights into the arms trade, developed drug checks, and seized 3 million euros in gold. But parliament pulled the plug shortly afterward, partly at the initiative of Yeşilgöz’s own party VVD. The new Justice Minister David van Weel (also VVD) then decided to “quickly dismantle” the team.

NSOC employees feel that they were not given sufficient time to prove their added value, according to the broadcaster. Devising and testing innovative working methods takes time, they said. Over the past year and a half, the NSOC investigated corruption in the port, checked private planes for drugs, and worked with the Eindhoven University of Technology on ways to detect hidden cash in cargo shipments. According to the team, these are just a few of the projects that have yielded something useful.

But political support for the team has disappeared. An agreement intended to ensure that the involved organizations could exchange information with each other was never reached. Politicians worried that the team would compete with the other investigative services for employees - for example, both the police and the NSOC were recruiting data specialists. And the NSOC never got close to its target of 181 employees - the team never exceeded 100 people.

Experts in the field of undermining crime have mixed feelings about the sudden dissolution of the team. “You want the government to make plans for the long term,” Teun van Ruitenburg, a lecturer in undermining at Avans University of Applied Sciences. “Now a lot has been rigged up, which will simply be thrown in the trash again due to a political decision. That hurts.”

At the same time, he understands the impatience for results. “Many people will think this is a waste of money. Because employees do take new knowledge and expertise back with them, I hope this has not been in vain.”