Heerlen the Dutch municipality that struggles most with undermining crime

Municipalities in the Netherlands’ border regions experience problems related to drug and arms trafficking and exploitation more often on average, RTL Nieuws reported based on its own research into undermining crime in 336 Dutch municipalities. The problems are most severe in Heerlen, Limburg.

According to the study, Heerlen has the highest number of cases of drug and arms trafficking per capita, the most anonymous reports of suspicious activities, and the most young people at risk of becoming involved in drug crime. Heerlen Mayor Roel Wever calls this city “the narcotics city of the Netherlands” in an interview with RTL. He is not surprised that his city tops the broadcaster’s Underworld Map and compares the problems in Heerlen to those of the large cities.

Wever criticized Minister David van Weel of Justice and Security and advocated for more police officers in his city. “My basic police team has shrunk by 30 full-time employees since 2022 as a result of some opaque calculation model. As long as the Minister continues to take the systemic world as a starting point and has no eye for what is happening here, I fear that we will not gain any additional officers in the coming years and will continue to score high on the Underworld Map.”

Police Chief Jan van Loosbroek of the Limburg police explained why border municipalities are attractive locations for subversive crime. “Criminals exploit the advantages of the border. Here in Limburg, criminals also spread their activities across Germany and Belgium, which makes detection difficult.”

In the border municipalities, police register significantly more cases of arms and drug trafficking. Residents notice this as well. The number of reports regarding subversive crime to the anonymous tip line Meld Misdaad Anoniem is 61 percent higher in border municipalities than in the rest of the country.

In the RTL Nieuws investigation, researchers focused on, among other things, signs of money laundering, the recruitment of young people as drug couriers, and the presence of drug labs in the municipality. Using the data, the RTL Nieuws editorial team compiled the Underworld Map.

The broadcaster did a similar study in 2022. Heerlen also scored the worst then. However, a direct comparison with the previous ranking is not possible because the researchers did not measure the same problems back then.

Below Heerlen in the top five on the Unverworld Map are the municipalities of Rotterdam, Schiedam, The Hague, and Kerkrade.