Police in the Noord-Holland town of Vijfhuizen found over 10,000 kilograms of fireworks stashed in a warehouse on Vijfhuizerdijk. Authorities said they were acting on an anonymous tip when they raided the facility.
The haul of illegal, heavy fireworks was so large, police said they needed two separate trucks to carry all of them away. Many of the fireworks were kept in boxes that identified F4-classification devices. Those are fireworks that are designated for professional use only.
The police want to oblige people caught with illegal fireworks throughout the year to report to the police over New Year's, in an effort to improve the safety of police officers and other emergency workers. Every New Year's there are incidents in which first responders are pelted with fireworks. The police reason that people can't throw illegal fireworks if they have to report to the police over New Year's, NOS reports.
A 39-year-old man killed in a fireworks explosion in Swifterbant on Saturday, was killed by a mortar bomb - a dangerous type of firework that is illegal in the Netherlands, NOS reports.
The police already suspected that the man was killed by illegal fireworks, and investigation revealed that it was a mortar.
A heavily explosive firework caused the death of a 39-year-old man in Swifterbant, Flevoland on Saturday afternoon. Police suspect, but have not confirmed, that the explosive was illegal, a representative told newswire ANP.
The man was killed in front of at least one of his children, a teenaged neighbor, Damian, told De Telegraaf. "At first I thought he was unconscious, but that was not the case," he said, calling the victim "Jaap".
The police have too little manpower to check all signals about illegal fireworks, according to Gerrit van de Kamp of police union ACP. There are simply not enough police officers to go check every address where illegal fireworks are suspected, RTL Nieuws reports.
The police are intensively searching for illegal fireworks providers and buyers, but they can't keep up. "That stuff is traded across the entire country", Van der Kamp said. "The police want to check all suspicions, but the amount of work is too great."
The police discovered over 100 kilograms of fireworks, including an improvised firework bomb in a home on Klarendalseweg in Arnhem on Wednesday evening. Restaurant Sugar Hill, located below the home, was evacuated while an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team removed the bomb. A 26-year-old man from Arnhem was arrested, the police said on Twitter.
Anonymous tip line Report Crime Anonymously gave a record number of 16,900 tips through to the police last year. Thanks to these anonymous tips a total of 1,671 suspects were arrested and more than 1,100 crimes were solved or prevented, the tip line announced with its annual figures on Tuesday, ANP reports.
About one in three tips received by the hot line is eventually given through to the police. The majority of the tips were made by telephone and about a quarter came in online.
A total of 473 people were treated for firework injuries in the nearly 90 emergency departments in Dutch hospitals over New Year's, according to research done by NOS and VeiligheidNL. That is slightly less than the 480 people treated for fireworks injuries last year.
The decrease in fireworks injuries was much smaller this year than in the previous two years. In both 2015 and 2016 there was a 14 percent decrease, according to the broadcaster.
The Dutch police do not always keep to safety regulations when it comes to storing confiscated illegal fireworks, Omroep Brabant reports based on its own research. Officers often don't have the proper training and the cabinets used to store dangerous bangers do not meet the safety requirements. This already led to dozens of incidents, according to the broadcaster.
The Rotterdam police found and seized 1,800 kilograms of illegal fireworks after raids in Hoogvliet and Wezep on Wednesday morning. Four people were arrested, the police announced.
The raids were the result of a months-long investigation triggered by the arrest of two minors in Spijkenisse a few months ago. The two kids were in possession of illegal fireworks. Extensive investigation led the police to the two addresses in Hoogvliet and Wezep.
The Dutch police want parents to be more alert in checking their children and their children's friends for illegal fireworks, Ad Nieuwdorp, fireworks expert at the National Police, said to AD. He called parents "naive" when it comes to dangerous fireworks.
"A cobra is just a grenade and totally not comparable to the strikers and astronauts they themselves lit as a teenager" Nieuwdorp said to the newspaper. He added that a legal soft banger going off in a hand will leave a child with burns, an illegal banger wil blow the hand off.
Police in the Netherlands arrested a 30-year-old Rotterdam resident suspected of planning a terrorist-related crime, the Dutch public prosecutor revealed on Friday. The suspect had a Kalashnikov AK-47 with two full magazines when authorities conducted the investigation.
A large painting in the suspect’s home depicting a flag used by ISIS was found, as well as four boxes of highly explosive illegal fireworks. Several mobile phones were also seized, along with 1,600 euros.
So far the Dutch police seized 14 thousand kilograms of illegal fireworks, according to the Public Prosecutor's weekly fireworks barometer which started up in the second week of October. By this time last year, the police already seized over 32 thousand kilograms of illegal fireworks, ANP reports.
The Public Prosecutor thinks the decrease can be explained by the trade in illegal fireworks starting up later this year than usual. A number of previously illegal fireworks were also classified legal this year.
The German authorities confiscated 40 thousand kilograms of illegal fireworks believed to be destined for the Dutch market. The fireworks were found in bunkers in the Kleef area, just over the border from Nijmegen, which were raided at the request of the Dutch Public Prosecutor.
A 25-year-old man from the Gelderland town of Aalst was arrested on Tuesday for running a website trading illegal fireworks. The police found illegal fireworks and two firearms in his home, the police said in a statement.
The Hague police confiscated over a thousand kilograms of illegal fireworks during an investigation on Thomsonlaan on Tuesday, the police said in a statement.
The police arrested three people in the Zeeland town of Axel as part of an ongoing investigation into the trafficking of illegal fireworks, the police said in a statement on Sunday. Hundreds of kilos of illegal fireworks were confiscated.
A massive 54 counter-protesters were arrested during a Pegida rally in The Hague on Sunday. The anti-Islam movement was protesting against the Netherlands' asylum policy.
The police seized 45,268 kilograms of fireworks in the weeks running up to New Year's, according to the Public Prosecutor's fireworks barometer. At this time last year, 39,566 kilos of illegal fireworks were seized.
The police discovered between 600 and 700 kilograms of presumably illegal fireworks in Maarssen on Tuesday afternoon after an anonymous tip
The fireworks industry expects a fall in the sale of fireworks this year, particularly when it comes to bangers, Leo Groeneveld, chairman of the interest association Pyrotechnics Netherlands said
With New Year's eve approaching, the police are once again discovering large amounts of illegal fireworks all across the Netherlands. In the past month alone, the police have confiscated 3,403 kilograms of illegal fireworks and arrested numerous suspects.
Police in Almelo confiscated 1,200 kilograms of heavy grades fireworks in Almelo last Saturday. Two people have been arrested.
Two men who sold dangerous fireworks should face three years in prison, the public prosecutor told a court in Breda, Noord-Brabant on Wednesday. The 25- and 33-year-olds from Breda co-ran a shop which provided customers with fireworks from Poland, the public prosecutor (OM) released.
