British fugitive snared in Dutch drug trafficking case

A British fugitive was arrested in Amsterdam on Tuesday and handed over to the Koninklijke Marechaussee at Eindhoven airport, who sees him as a suspect in an ongoing drug trafficking investigation. The 27-year-old Brit is wanted for violation of the Opium and Firearms Acts, the police said in a statement. A police officer in civilian clothes saw the man walking two large dogs on Prins Hendrikkade and recognized him as the wanted Brit. The officer called for backup. He instructed the man to tie the dogs to a pole. The fugitive complied and was handcuffed immediately afterwards. The man was loaded into a police bus and taken to the police station. A nearby dog handler called in a veterinarian to sedate the dogs slightly, to calm them down and make them less dangerous. The animals were transferred to an animal shelter. The Koninklijke Marechaussee, a policing force that works as a branch of the Dutch military and is responsible for airport security, is handling the investigation further. The British fugitive is suspected in a drug trafficking case in which the Marechaussee already made two arrests. On September 1st, the Marechaussee at Eindhoven Airport arrested a 24-year-old Brit on suspicion of drug smuggling after he was caught trying to smuggle a large quantity of hard drugs through the airport to Ibiza. Investigation led the Marechaussee to a home in Amsterdam believed to be where the Brit got the drugs. A SWAT team raided the home and found no people present, but did find a quantity and four handguns, some of which were loaded. A few days later the second suspect, a 43-year-old man who owns the Amsterdam home, turned himself in to the police in Amsterdam.