Police arrested a third man connected to a shooting in Utrecht, where local residents said the perpetrator was dressed up like Zwarte Piet. The arrest in the 2018 case was announced on Tuesday. He is a 48-year-old man with no fixed address.
Two people were arrested in the case last June. Neither was believed to be the shooter, police said in July when they released images of the man they said was at large.
A large quantity of heroin was found hidden on board a ship in Rotterdam just before the end of the year, authorities at the port said. Police and Customs officers discovered some 439 kilograms of the narcotic hidden below a shipment of talc stone during a routine check.
The cargo was still inside a sea container on the ship when it was inspected, police said. Authorities seized and destroyed and destroyed the drugs.
No arrests were announced in the case, police disclosed on Friday. The investigation is still ongoing.
Customs officers at the port of Vlissingen intercepted 921 kilograms of cocaine on Tuesday. The drugs were hidden in a container of bananas that came from Ecuador, the police said in a statement.
The drugs were discovered with a mobile scan. The police seized and destroyed the cocaine. So far no arrests were made.
The police are investigating.
More than 80 kilograms of cocaine was found on a Martinair Cargo plane in Argentina. Seven men, three of whom are Dutch, were arrested, including the plane's pilot and some crew members, RTL Nieuws reports.
The plane was at the Ezeiza International Airport near Buenos Aires when the drugs were discovered. Local media report that the discovery was made shortly before he plane was set to depart for Amsterdam, via Ecuador and Miami.
The police registered a total of 21,302 trafficking related crimes in 2019, an increase of over 16 percent compared to the year before. The increase was mainly due to a spike in weapons trafficking and drug trafficking, according to an initial analysis of crime statistics released on Wednesday.
A hand grenade was found at an apartment building in Kerkdriel, where the mayor of the municipality of Maasdriel lives, on Monday morning. Dozens of local residents were evacuated as explosive experts disarmed the device, local safety office Veiligheidsregio Gelderland-Zuid said on Twitter.
The explosive was found just before 5:30 a.m. At 11:00 a.m., the safety office announced that the device had been disarmed and no longer posed a danger to the surroundings. Gasthuisplein an Monseigneur Zwijsenplein were cordoned off for investigation.
Neighbors in the Kamperpoort neighborhood of Zwolle painted a grim picture of Henk W., a man found shot and killed there on New Year's Eve. One resident, Wietze, who knew the victim told RTV Oost he was "not known to be a sweetheart" and that she always suspected something like this would happen to him.
Another said it was "a relief" that he was gone.
Customs officials in and around Rotterdam found a total of 775 kilograms of cocaine in three separate investigations. The busts all took place between Friday and Sunday, with authorities taking seven people into custody.
Customs officers intercepted a large amount of cocaine during a check at the port of Rotterdam on Monday. The drugs were hidden in around 40 barrels of frozen fruit pulp, the Public Prosecutor said on Wednesday.
The container with the drugs came from Brazil. The cocaine was removed and destroyed.
The HARC team, a joint venture of Customs, FIOD, Seaport Police, and the Public Prosecution Service in Rotterdam, is investigating.
Four separate shipments of cocaine were found by Customs officials at the Port of Rotterdam over the past week. All told, officials captured 1,457 kilograms of cocaine, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said.
All of the cocaine made its way to the Netherlands from Brazil. The drugs were later destroyed, the OM said.
It started on December 12 when Customs officers found 450 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a shipment of grit used in the concrete industry. Another 500 kilograms of the drug was found frozen inside barrels of concentrated fruit pulp.
Authorities working at the port in Vlissingen discovered roughly 1,200 kilograms of cocaine. The drugs were discovered hidden in a banana shipment that was delivered to a company based at the port, police said.
A criminal investigation was launched after the contraband was found on Tuesday afternoon. No arrests were announced in the case. “The drugs have since been removed and destroyed,” police said.
Banana shipments have been a frequent cover for cocaine traffickers in the Netherlands this year.
Police in Spain are looking for a 29-year-old Dutch man in connection with the fatal shooting of a French man in Cabopino, Marbella. The man in his 60's was gunned down on the street at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday when he was walking to his car, according to local newspaper Diario Sur.
The newspaper said the Dutch suspect, an alleged contract killer, is well known by police in the area, and should be considered “very dangerous.” He was described as being 1.80-meters tall, thin, and having a beard. There was no description of the second suspect involved in the shooting.
Employees of a fruit company in Ridderkerk found a large batch of cocaine hidden among melons in a shipment the company received from Brazil on Monday, the Public Prosecutor said.
A total of 330 kilograms of cocaine were hidden in the container, according to RTL Nieuws. The container came from Brazil and was delivered to the port of Rotterdam before being moved to the company in Ridderkerk.
The fruit company employees called the police the moment they found the drugs. The Public Prosecutor does not believe the company was involved in the drug trafficking.
Traders in illegal fireworks are increasingly making use of drug routes to bring their products into the Netherlands, according to the police. The bigger chance of fireworks sent by mail being intercepted, means that these traders are looking for other ways to distribute illegal fireworks, the police said, NOS reports.
The police arrested a 57-year-old Italian man in The Hague on Monday based on a European arrest warrant. He is wanted for drug trafficking and membership to a criminal organization, the police said. Newspaper AD identifies the suspect as Alfredo M., allegedly affiliated with the Camorra crime syndicate in Naples.
The Italian authorities believes that M. formed part of an international network that smuggled cocaine and hashish from Spain and the Netherlands to Italy, according to AD. The gang had a foothold in a restaurant in The Hague, which was run by two brothers from Naples.
Riduouan Taghi, considered the most wanted fugitive criminal in the Netherlands, is likely staying on Kish - an island in the Persian Gulf, an about two-hour boat ride from Dubai, the Telegraaf reports based on "multiple sources" within and outside the investigative services. The Netherlands has no extradition treaty with Kish.
In July the Telegraaf wrote that Taghi was "almost certainly" hiding in Dubai.
On Monday the police made four more arrests in the investigation into the organized crime family in Noord-Brabant allegedly run by Martien R. That means that a total of seven suspects are now in custody, including Martien R. himself.
Investigators working near the Rotterdam port found nearly 100 kilograms of cocaine at a fruit company in the IJsselmonde district of the city on Monday. The drugs were hidden in a shipment of melons from Brazil, the police said in a statement.
“Employees of the fruit company found the drugs among the fruit and reported it,” police said. “The company probably has nothing to do with drug trafficking.” The cocaine was seized and destroyed.
Early this month the Dutch and Australian police dismantled a large drug network responsible for trafficking MDMA from the Netherlands to Australia. A total of 850 kilograms of MDMA powder and 550 liters of MDMA oil were seized - enough to make more than 15 million ecstasy pills, according to the Australian Federal Police. The Dutch police arrested eight suspects. One suspect was arrested in Australia.
On Thursday the police continued raids against the "Godfather of Noord-Brabant" Martien R. and his family by closing down and searching a caravan park in Lith. The intensive search was stalled by the discovery of an explosive. Police officers asked members of the press to stay at a distance while explosive experts from the Ministry of Defense were called in to investigate, Omroep Brabant and De Telegraaf report.
Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb wants the Netherlands' privacy rules to be adjusted so that they no longer protect criminals, the mayor said in a letter to Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus.
Increasing trust issues between police officers in the National Unit is putting the intelligence work this police service is responsible for at serious risk, newspaper NRC reports based on conversations with people involved. The intelligence gathered by the National Unit is used for tackling terrorism and serious crime, including drug trafficking from Spain and Colombia.
The police tackled what they call a "criminal family network" in Oss, Noord-Brabant on Wednesday. Three men, believed to be the leaders of this criminal network, were arrested. During searches at a caravan camp and other places in Oss, the police found and confiscated automatic firearms, drugs and cash. Possible explosives were also found.
Personnel data from a fruit wholesaler in Hedel, Gelderland accidentally ended up in the criminal file of a major cocaine investigation, the Public Prosecution Service in Oost-Nederland confirmed. In a statement, the Prosecutor said it regrets the state of affairs, stressing that there have never been indications that people were in immediate danger. Nevertheless, dozens of employees of the wholesaler are terrified of reprisals from the criminal underworld, RTL Nieuws reports.
