A car with Dutch license plates was overturned on the A12 highway near the Belgian village of Zandvliet sometime during the night between Thursday and Friday. The two people in the car died in the crash. Sadly, the crashed car was only noticed after daybreak, RTL Nieuws reports.
"We suspect that [the victims] are Dutch, but that remains to be seen", a spokesperson for the local police said to RTL Nieuws. Police are still confirming their identities.
Police in the Netherlands announced on Monday the arrest of a 25-year-old Rotterdam man in connection with the discovery of 2,019 kilograms of cocaine at the Port of Antwerp in Belgium. The arrest took place weeks ago on November 27 after the cocaine was found in a sea container by Belgian customs officials, Dutch police said.
The cocaine was found in a shipment of fertilizer that originated in Colombia. The container was destined for the Netherlands.
Even with nearly two months left to go in the year, authorities at the Port of Rotterdam this year have already surpassed the record amount of cocaine caught there in 2018, according to an investigation by De Telegraaf. Some 23 thousand kilograms of cocaine was intercepted at the largest port in Europe, a 28 percent increase over the 18 thousand kilograms captured during all of last year.
Authorities working at the Port of Rotterdam found dozens of kilograms of cocaine hidden among a banana shipment. In total, some 186 kilos of cocaine was found inside the sea container, prosecution service OM said in a statement.
The value of the Tuesday seizure was estimated at between four and six million euros, according to local broadcaster RTV Rijnmond.
The container originated in Colombia, and was first set for Antwerp, Belgium before it continued to Rotterdam, its final destination. “The drugs have since been destroyed,” the OM stated.
Ten Dutch people on trial in Belgium for using explosions during the robberies of a half-dozen ATMs were convicted and sentenced to up to 13 years in prison on Wednesday. All six cash machine assaults took place around the northern Flemish-speaking area of the country last year, netting the perpetrators some 808 thousand euros, according to VRT.
The Dutch women's field hockey team won the European Championships in Antwerp on Sunday with a 2-0 victory over Germany. With the European title in hand, the Dutch women also won a place in the Olympic Games in Tokyo next year. The team and coach Alyson Annan are delighted, NU.nl reports.
Customs investigators in Antwerp seized a massive amount of cocaine hidden in a rice shipment at the port there. Over three thousand kilos of cocaine was found, with an estimated street value of 150 million euros.
The drug packages, valued at 150 million euros, were found during a routine search. The shipment was likely destined for the Den Haag region, according to Dutch police. No arrests were made in the case.
Four Dutch people were hospitalized after a boating accident on the Schelde in Antwerp on Friday. Two speedboats crashed into each other. A total of 20 Dutch people were injured, NOS reports.
The two speedboats, with captains, were hired by a Dutch company for its annual corporate outing. The speedboats collided shortly after departure. Multiple people ended up in the water. A diving team from the local fire brigade rescued two people from the water, the others were picked up by a water taxi, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reported.
Four Belgian men were sentenced to five years in prison for gang raping two Dutch women for hours in an Antwerp hotel in March of this year. One of the men took the Dutch women, aged 21 and 22 years, to his hotel room on Mechelseplein after a night in a nightclub, after which he and his friends raped them, RTL Nieuws reports.
Former TV presenter Frank Masmeijer, suspected of trafficking cocaine through the port of Antwerp, was arrested in a hotel in Breda on Tuesday. According to Masmeijers' Dutch lawyer, Geert-Jan Knoops, Belgium recently issued an arrest warrant for his client in connection with the drug trafficking case, NU.nl reports.
Increasing violence and drug trafficking in Antwerp has its roots in Netherlands organized crime, according to Antwerp mayor Bart de Wever. "The drug problems in terms of cocaine trafficking have moved from Rotterdam to Antwerp in recent years. Which means that the Netherlands owes a debt to the rest of Europe", he said to Nieuwsuur.
Four young men were arrested on suspicion of gang-raping two Dutch women in a hotel in Antwerp early on Saturday morning. Three of them admitted to being in the hotel, but deny raping the young women. The fourth confessed, his lawyer told Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.
The authorities in Antwerp are investigating a gang-rape involving five men raping two young Dutch women. Three suspects were arrested so far, AD reports.
The two Dutch women, 21 and 22-years-old, went to Antwerp for the weekend, according to the newspaper. On Friday night they visited discotheque Roxy, where rapper Ronnie Flex and a number of Dutch DJ's performed. At the club, they started chatting with five men. They don't remember much more of the night, they told the police. The police believe they were drugged.
Te A67 highway between Eindhoven and Antwerp is closed in both directions near Eersel after a tanker carrying a hazardous, corrosive substance crashed through the middle rail on Friday morning.
The truck was carrying sodium hydroxide, according to Eindhovens Dagblad. The accident happened just after 5:30 a.m. The truck, traveling from the direction of Eindhoven, crashed through the middle rail and toppled. A car then crashed into the truck, causing a leak.
One person was killed as the result of a shooting on Socratesstraat in the southern part of Rotterdam around 10:30 p.m. on Friday. Police reported that the victim was struck by several bullets, but found alive by first responders.
He was transported to the hospital in critical condition. The man died in the hospital on Saturday evening.
A 39-year-old Amsterdam man accused of kidnapping a 16-year-old girl and forcing her to marry him convicted on Thursday. He was sentenced to two years in prison, according to news wire ANP.
The man was acquitted of terrorism related charges, and planning a trip to war-torn Syria.
The teenaged girl is from the small Noord-Brabant village of Heesch. She was missing for several weeks spanning July and August in 2016.
A prisoner who escaped in Antwerp in July, was arrested in Amsterdam on Thursday. Belgium requested that he be extradited, AT5 reports.
According to the broadcaster, the man in question was one of two arrested for stealing expensive jewelry from homes in Belgium. Both suspects managed to escape police custody when they were set to appear in court. They attacked a police officer in front of the court and took off, still wearing their handcuffs.
The Dutch authority on consumer and markets ACM launched an investigation into whether companies operating in Dutch ports made illegal price agreements, or are guilty of so-called cartel formation. The companies investigated all work in the bunker sector, which supplies ships with fuel, NOS reports.
Belgian customs officers seized nearly 90 million cigarettes in the port of Antwerp last week - one of the largest ever in the port. The shipment came from the Egyptian port of Said and was destined for a company in the Netherlands, ANP reports.
Belgian Minister of Finance Johan van Overtveldt congratulated all involved in this record bust. "The fight against illegal products and fraud is high on the agenda, and we can see that in the results."
The cigarettes involved are so-called Cheap White cigarettes of brands not registered in Belgium.
Dutch man Jelle F. was sentenced on appeal to 18 years in prison for throwing acid in a woman's face in a Delhaize supermarket in Antwerp two years ago, ANP reports.
The sentence is the same as when F. first stood trial. Unlike the first trial however, the appeal judge did not find F. guilty of attempted murder, but of extortion and torture. According to the court, it is not clear that F. wanted to kill his victim.
The Dutch hospitals that can offer NIP tests to all pregnant women from April 1st are getting ready for a rush. They expect that half of the about 180 thousand pregnant women in the Netherlands per year will opt for the test, AD reports. Belgian company Gendia is suing the Dutch state for illegal state aid by subsidizing the test, which screens for serious disorders like Down's Syndrome.
A 39-year-old man arrested in Antwerp on Thursday on suspicion of trying to commit a terrorist attack, was arrested three times last week. One of those times happened in Rotterdam, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reports.
Why suspect Mohamed R. was arrested in Rotterdam is unclear. The police told him that he had to leave the Netherlands. He listened, because on Monday the Belgian police checked him at a friend's house in Hoboken, according to the newspaper.
On Tuesday the Dutch police arrested six persons in connection with the discovery of 1,100 kilograms of heroin in a container from Iran, the police said in a statement. The drugs' street value is around 34 million euros, according to the police. More arrests may follow.
The arrests were made after the Dutch authorities and Belgian authorities jointly searched a container from Iran in the port of Antwerp on Monday. In it they found the drugs hidden in two baking machines. The drugs were removed and the container was sent on to its destination.
Dutch pedophile Pieter C. was sentenced on appeal to 19 years in prison and 15 years of institutionalized psychiatric treatment by the court in Antwerp on Thursday. The sentence is the same as when the case was first tried, the Telegraaf reports.
