Zoetermeer

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. 

31 mayors of larger Dutch cities are calling on the Senate not to remove the appointment of mayors from the Dutch constitution, and to keep the procedure as is. Removing the appointment procedure from the constitution is the first step in enabling an elected mayor. The mayors are worried that this will result in them losing their connecting role as "father or mother for all residents, businesses and institutions", they wrote in an open letter to the Senate, the Volkskrant reports.

A man who died after being found with gunshot wounds in front of the LangeLand hospital in Zoetermeer on Monday morning, was identified as an 18-year-old vocational pupil from Zoetermeer. His father is a police officer. It is believed that the boy was hit by bullets fired by one of his father's colleagues in Delft on Monday morning, AD reports.

A 19-year-old man from Delft was shot on Hugo de Grootlaan in Zoetermeer during the early hours of Sunday morning. He was rushed to hospital with unknown injuries. Three suspects were arrested in the hours after the shooting, ANP reports.

The suspects are three men aged 19, 20 and 22, all from Zoetermeer. They are in custody for questioning.

Former Olympian Alan V. from Zoetermeer will stand trial next week for grooming - winning a child's trust in preparation for sexual assault. The 41-year-old man confessed to asking an underage girl for nude films, according to the Public Prosecutor, AD reports.

In 2015 V. approached a then 15-year-old girl under a false name, the Prosecutor said. He asked her to send him videos of herself performing sexual acts, in exchange for reward. "In exchange for your love, you get everything you want", he said to her in one message, according to the Prosecutor.

Bus drivers faced intimidation during a nationwide regional public transit strike on Wednesday. According to employers association VWOV, drivers who decided to work were faced with striking colleagues taking photos of them and buses buses being blocked at the gate. According to union FNV, it was the other way around and the striking drivers were intimidated, RTL Nieuws reports.

The government is planning to close four prisons in the Netherlands, sources told newspaper AD. The prisons need to close because there are too many empty cells in the country, but this will also cause job losses for prison staff.

The prisons in Zoetermeer, Zeist, Almere and Zwaag are on the list to be closed, according to the newspaper. By choosing those prisons, the government hopes to save prisons outside the Randstad, where prison workers will have a harder time finding new work. 

Rents in the Netherlands free sector continue to rise, especially outside the four large cities. The average rental price in the Netherlands increased by nearly 6 percent compared to a year ago, according to figures rental housing site Pararius released on Tuesday, NOS reports.

The aldermen form the Randstad want more money to be invested for the light rail, the rapid transit railway in the Randstad. If that doesn't happen, they fear that the public transport will be paralyzed within 10 years. 

NOS conducted a study asking the councilors form municipalities in the Randstad how they pictured the development of the light rail. The questions concerned the actual plans and whether the investments by the Rijksoverheid (the central government) behind it were sufficient.

A 26-year-old man from Amsterdam was arrested for involvement in the murders of a father and son in Zoetermeer in April. A SWAT team arrested the suspect in his home on Tuesday, NOS reports.

The police would not tell the broadcaster exactly what role the man is suspected of playing in the murders. 

The police in Zoetermeer arrested two boys on Sunday evening for scaring a number of motorists by shooting at them with fake, but real looking, guns, the police said on Twitter.

The two were wearing Guy Fawkes masks, currently better known as Anonymous masks. From a moving car on Bredewater, they pointed and "shot" at other motorists with fake automatic firearms. 

Both boys were are in custody.