Drug dealer arrested at Hungary festival is Dutch athlete: report
One of two Dutch men arrested for dealing drugs at popular music festival Sziget in Budapest, Hungary, is 21-year-old Roelf B. - a top sprinter who formed part of the Dutch relay team in the European Championship for athletes under the age of 23, AD reports.
B.'s arrest caused a major shock in the Dutch athletics world. The Athletics Union is shaken by the drug-related arrest of another top athlete, technical director Ad Roskam said to AD. "It is too bizarre for words." He cannot officially confirm B.'s identity, but said that the union is trying to contact his family.
The young sprinter is the second top Dutch athlete to be arrested on drug charges this year. Amsterdam sprinter Madiea G. has been in custody in Germany for almost two months on suspicion of drug trafficking. "But that doesn't make the shock bigger or less. The surprise is great either way", Roskam said to the newspaper.
Dagblad van het Noorden identifies the second Dutch man arrested at Sziget as 22-year-old Gert-Jan N. Like B., he is also from Stadskanaal, but as far as is known, he isn't an athlete.
The two are suspected of selling drugs from their tent at the music festival. The local police went to search their tent after festival guards informed them about a constant stream of visitors. The police seized a kilogram of ecstasy pills, 451 bottles of narcotics and 128 grams of cannabis. The seized drugs had a street value of around 15 thousand euros.
On Tuesday, the local police announced that more drugs were found in the suspects' car, NU.nl reports. According to the police, the suspects refused to tell the police where they parked their car. But after finding the car keys, the police managed to track down the Volkswagen Caddy elsewhere in Budapest. Inside the police found another 17 kilograms of narcotics.
On their website, the Hungarian police report that the two Dutch men were arrested on Tuesday evening last week. On Saturday a local public prosecutor said that "life imprisonment" is a possibility if drug trafficking is proven, according to AD.
Hungary has a very strict anti-drug policy. Drug dealing carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. If particularly large quantities of drugs are involved, or there are other aggravating circumstances, suspects can face between 20 years and life in prison, according to NU.nl.
