An investigation into the discovery of cocaine hidden in a flower shipment in January led to a much larger drug bust in April. Ten people were taken into custody who worked for a logistics firm at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam after 160 kilograms of cocaine was found in another flower shipment.
It was not revealed when the arrests took place, but eight of the suspects were still in custody on Thursday.
Four Dutch persons were arrested in the Netherlands and Croatia last week as part of a major international investigation into large-scale drug trafficking, led by the German police. The Dutch are suspected of delivering psychoactive substances, popularly called designer drugs, to thousands of German buyers, the Dutch police said in a statement. This involved at least 15 thousand shipments, according to the police.
Around 50 climate activists from the group Smash Cruiseshit blocked the departure of Dutch cruise ship Zuiderdam from the German city of Kiel on Sunday afternoon, the action group said in a press release. The activists occupied a construction crane, positioned rowboats in front of the ship, and blocked access to the bollards to which the ship was moored.
The police were urgently looking for a 14-year-old exchange student from Morocco who disappeared in Amsterdam during the early hours of Wednesday morning. "His supervisors are very concerned about his wellbeing", the police said, adding that the boy only speaks Arabic and doesn't know the Netherlands particularly well.
Mohammed left the Amsterdam host family's home where he had been staying at around 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. He had a suitcase with him and was wearing a black quilted jacket, dark gray sweatpants, Nike sneakers, and a gold and red T-shirt with glitter.
A Dutch man was critically injured Wednesday night after he impaled himself on a fence while apparently taking a shortcut to a casino. The Almelo man was walking to a gambling house in Ahaus, Germany when he climbed over a fence that separated a playground from the casino grounds, the District Police in Borken, Germany said in a statement.
He slipped as he tried to hop the fence, and the sharp tip of the fencing pierced his thigh. He remained hanging there, crying out for help shortly after the incident happened at 12:20 a.m.
A Flixbus bus on its way from Munich to Amsterdam collided with a truck in Germany during the early hours of Wednesday morning. Seven people were injured, three of whom seriously. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs can not yet say whether any of the victims are Dutch, RTL Nieuws reports.
The Dutch and German police have their hands full with Dutch criminals committing ATM bombings in Germany. In the first four months of this year, Dutch suspects were linked to 82 ATM bombings on German territory. Last year the cooperation between the two police forces resulted in the arrest of 98 suspects in the Netherlands, 49 of whom are suspected of ATM bombings in Germany, AD reports.
In the Netherlands, 33 ATMs were blown open so far this year.
A 47-year-old man from Syria was arrested in Kapelle in Zeeland on Tuesday on suspicion of committing war crimes and terrorist crimes in Syria. The man is suspected of being a commander of a battalion in terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra, the police said in a statement.
On Tuesday Rotterdam commemorated the 79th anniversary of the Rotterdam Blitz, the German bombardment of the city during the Second World War. "We are still for two minutes. Out of respect for the biggest sacrifice that a person can make: his or her life", Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said about the two minutes of silence. "They did that for our freedom. We walk in their footsteps."
The European Union needs to set different priorities, and Germany must take the lead in this, according to Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra. In his lecture at the Humboldt University in Berlin on Tuesday, he will call for more attention for European defense, for protecting the external borders, for tackling the climate problem, and for making sure that all EU member states adhere to EU rules, NOS reports.
A new key suspect in the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann in Portugal in 2007, was once also a suspect in the murder of Dutch boy Nicky Verstappen in 1998, the Telegraaf reports.
The suspect in question is 48-year-old German pedophile Matin Ney. He was sentenced to life in prison for abducting and murdering three German boys in 1992, 1995 and 2001, and sexually abusing dozens of other children, according to news.com.au. Ney was in Portugal working on a project for homeless people when Maddie McCann disappeared, according to the news site.
Despite the Netherlands suffering a 2-3 defeat against Germany in the European Championship qualifier on Sunday, Dutch coach Ronald Koeman is still very proud of his team. After ending the first half 0-2 behind the German team, Oranje made a major comeback in the second half. "I am proud of how we played in the second half. We were 2-0 behind. Then you can just give up, but we played great", Koeman said to NOS.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima expressed their shock about a shooting in Utrecht that left three people killed and five injured on Monday. Their sympathies are with the victims, and their thoughts with the residents of Utrecht, they said in a statement on the Koninklijk Huis website. A number of world leaders also expressed condolences and support.
A Deutsche Bahn train was derailed by a fallen tree in Enschede on Wednesday evening. The salvage and cleanup work will likely take all day, according to rail manager ProRail. Currently no train traffic is possible between Enschede and Gronau, Germany, NU.nl reports.
The tree fell onto the tracks due to the bad weather conditions. The German train collided with it and derailed, ProRail reported on Twitter at around 8:20 p.m. None of the 35 passengers on board were hurt.
The Australian border police in Sydney discovered a number of champagne bottles that didn't contain champagne, but liquid ecstasy. Most of these bottles were shipped to Australia from Belgium, but a number also came from the Netherlands, France and Germany, the Australian Border Force [ABF] said in a statement.
KLM canceled around a dozen flights on Tuesday due to strikes at German airports. This involved flights to Frankfurt, Bremen and Hamburg. Lufthansa flights from Schiphol to these airports were not affected, AD reports.
Travelers can consult KLM's website about the status of their flights. Whether there will be more cancelations later this week, a spokesperson could not say to AD. "We're keeping an eye on the situation every day."
A terrorism suspect who was arrested in the German city of Mainz at the end of last year, will be extradited to the Netherlands next week, the judiciary in Koblenz announced. The man lives in Rotterdam, but was visiting his cousin on the day of his arrest, December 29th, NOS reports.
Another Rotterdam man was arrested on suspicion of involvement in terrorist-related crimes, the Public Prosecutor's office said on Monday. The arrest is not connected to the arrest of four men in Rotterdam over the weekend, suspected of plotting a terrorist act.
Monday's announcement concerns a 24-year-old man who will be interrogated in the coming days. Little was revealed about the suspected plan.
No weapons or explosives were found. In searching his home, several data collection devices were seized.
A Yellow Vests protest in Belgium briefly blocked that country's traffic from crossing the border into the Dutch city of Maastricht on Wednesday night. The blockade on the E25 highway in Voeren, Belgium, was just a few hundred meters away from the border point.
Dutch authorities assisted their Belgian counterparts in controlling the protest.
About 20 Yellow Vest demonstrators were involved. They allegedly set a fire using pallets and rubber tires, according to L1.
A 40-year-old man in Arnhem was arrested on Saturday in connection with the fatal stabbing of his 12-year-old son, Bekiro. Police responded to the scene Saturday morning to find the distraught father, and promptly took him into custody. He was later transported to the Scheveningen prison hospital facility, according to newspaper Gelderlander.
The man's 15-year-old son fled the house, according to local media reports. The boys' mother reportedly lives in Germany.
Four men were arrested in Amstelveen on Friday when police found five bags of cannabis and a block of cocaine hidden in secret compartments of two vehicles. Along with the drugs, police seized nearly 40,000 euros, 1,700 British pounds, 1,200 Swiss francs, 14 gemstones, five gold coins, a smaller quantity of cannabis, and a sex-toy with inlaid diamonds.
Four months after Dutch cyber security expert Arjen Kamphuis disappeared in Norway, his friends and family believe that he is still alive and that he chose to disappear himself. He previously also disappeared from the radar, they said to newspaper AD.
A total of 90 people arrested in a large international action against the Italian mafia clan 'Ndrangheta on Wednesday morning, was announced at a press conference at European judicial cooperation body Eurojust in The Hague. As part of 'Operation Pollino', the police and judiciary in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium raided various locations.
Police and judiciary in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Belgium are raiding countless locations on Wednesday morning in a coordinated action against the Italian 'Ndrangheta, a mafia clan from Calabria that is active throughout Europe. Raids and arrests are currently taking place in the four countries, ANP reports
Dozens of raids are being done in the Netherlands, a spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor said to the news wire. He could give no further information.
