Schiphol workers sentenced more harshly for drug trafficking
The Amsterdam Court of Appeal sentenced 13 suspects on appeal to prison sentences between 1.5 and almost 9 years for smuggling cocaine and heroin through Schiphol Airport. Former Schiphol workers received extra severe sentences because the court concluded that they played a crucial role in this drug trafficking. The court also confiscated the criminal earnings of several suspects, amounting to just over 100,000 euros, Parool reported.
The drug trafficking case dates back to 2018 and first came to trial in 2022. Then, the court convicted 13 of the 20 suspects, including 9 airport workers. They were now convicted again on appeal for their roles in importing dozens of kilograms of cocaine and heroin in 11 drug transports. Because both the original trial and the appeal took too long, the court did grant sentence reductions.
The highest sentence went to 60-year-old Sadik E., who worked in catering and aircraft cleaning at the airport. According ot the court, he played a directing and executive role in seven drug transports and helped to prepare an eighth. The court sentenced him to nearly nine years in prison - taking a 10-year sentence and deducting one year for the length of the process and another two weeks because the authorities read E.’s phone without the proper permissions.
Ali H.’s lawyer, Jillis Roelse, argued that two Koninklijke Marechaussee officers were biased against his client because he was involved in an earlier investigation in 2015. That case was dropped, but the 44-year-old airport worker had stuck in the investigators’ minds, causing them to exaggerate their investigation findings in the new case, the lawyer argued. According to the lawyer, his client did not get a neutral and objective investigation.
Remarkably, the argument prompted the advocate general - the prosecutor at the court of appeal - to recommend that A. be acquitted. The appeals court disagreed and convicted A. for importing 8 kilograms of heroin. According to the court, A. was previously suspected of drug smuggling, had a coordinating role in these transports, abused his position as an experienced Schiphol employee, and thus “had an undermining influence on society.”
The appeals court sentenced A. to four years in prison, one year longer than his original sentence. The sentence would have been 4.6 years, but the court deducted six months because the trials took too long.
