Cases scrapped against fmr. coffeeshop owner who spent years in Thai prison

The ongoing criminal cases against former coffeeshop owner Johan van Laarhoven and approximately 20 other suspects of fraud and money laundering, among other things, are being terminated. The court in Breda approved the termination settlement between the Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the suspects on Monday. Van Laarhoven was detained in a Thai prison for years.

The suspects paid fines ranging from 20,000 to 375,000 euros and completed a total of 460 hours of community service. They also paid 7.75 million euros to the State as income allegedly earned through criminal activities. The court declared the OM inadmissible on Monday in the further prosecution of the suspects. As a result, the criminal cases can be terminated.

When making the ruling, the judge said that it considered not only the interests of the suspects and the OM but also the interests of society. The court took into account “that the judiciary should not be overburdened” and that criminal cases against Van Laarhoven and the other suspects would take a lot of time if they were to continue.

Johan van Laarhoven founded the Noord-Brabant coffeeshop chain The Grass Company. He lived in Thailand with his wife when he was arrested in 2014 on suspicion of laundering criminal assets. Van Laarhoven was sentenced to 75 years in prison and spent 5.5 years detained in deplorable conditions. In January 2020, Van Laarhoven was able to return to the Netherlands, after mediation by then Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus.

The Netherlands’ investigation into the coffeeshop chain led in 2011 to suspicions of large-scale money laundering of at least 20 million euros, tax fraud, trade in soft drugs, forgery, and the formation of a criminal organization. Dozens of (legal) persons were identified as suspects. Searches were carried out both in the Netherlands and abroad, and bank accounts and real estate were seized.

In 2019, the National Ombudsman concluded that the Netherlands acted carelessly in its investigation into Van Laarhoven, and that resulted in his arrest and years-long imprisonment in Thailand.