A Dutch lawyer in a major gangland case has been shot dead outside his Amsterdam home – a crime described by police as exceptionally brutal.
Below 10 things you definitely did not know about Dutch drug laws.
Derk Wiersum, 44, was the lawyer for Nabil Bakkali, a crown witness in a case against members of a violent drug gang, who are accused of five murders between 2015 and 2017.
The brother of Nabil Bakkali was also shot dead last year shortly after authorities named Bakkali as a witness.
Lawyers and prosecutors in major gangland drugs cases in the Netherlands have been given emergency protection after the unprecedented murder of a top defense lawyer prompted police and the media to claim that government naivety was turning the country into a narco-state.
Derk Wiersum was gunned down in the street as he left his home in the Amsterdam suburb of Buitenveldert on Wednesday morning.
Dutch media compared Wiersum’s killing to the targeted Mafia assassinations of investigating magistrates in Italy in the 1990s or the lawless Colombia under the drugs baron Pablo Escobar.
Police chief Erik Akerboom said “with this brutal murder, a new limit has been crossed: now even people simply doing their work no longer seem safe”.
And Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus called the shooting “an attack on our rule of law”.
Police said they were looking for a young, 16- to 20-year old man dressed in black and a hoodie, seen fleeing the scene on foot after the shooting soon after 07:30 local time (05:30 GMT).
One of Mr Wiersum’s two children was at home at the time.
On Twitter fellow lawyer Jillis Roelse called it “one of the blackest days” for criminal law practitioners.
He described Derk Wiersum as “one big, passionate heart for his work and clients”.
“This is really horrible news. But everything he stood for and believed in so strongly will come back stronger than ever before,” Mr Roelse said.
Read more on Dutch crime and drugs:
- Dutch crime godfather given life for five murders
- Dutch cities chosen for cannabis supply trial
- Fake ambulance drugs smuggler convicted
The five gangland murders in Utrecht and Amsterdam were nicknamed the “Mocro Maffia” wars, which inspired a fictional Dutch TV crime series, involving Moroccan-origin gangsters.
The main suspects in those killings are two Dutch gangland figures of Moroccan origin: Ridouan Taghi and Said Razzouki.
The EU police agency Europol lists them among Europe’s “most wanted fugitives”.
Flags were at half-mast outside courtrooms across the Netherlands on Thursday and lawyers were to hold a minute’s silence as the justice minister, Ferd Grapperhaus, met officials from the public prosecutors’ office and representatives of Dutch lawyers’ associations to discuss the heightened security arrangements.
The chief public prosecutor, Fred Westerbeke, told Dutch TV that while measures had been taken to protect lawyers and officials in the case, the possibility of murder had not been considered. “We are obviously taking more steps now,” he said.
Grapperhaus described the killing as a “disgusting attack … on our rule of law”, adding that the “safety of people who work to guard that must be beyond question”.
Calling for a new approach to organised crime, the national police chief, Erik Akerboom, said Dutch society “cannot accept this. A line has been crossed.”
The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, described the murder as “a shock for our society, because the victim was doing his job and it’s a very important job in our constitutional state”, while the prime minister, Mark Rutte, called the shooting “extremely disturbing”.
The Dutch counter-terrorism agency, NCTV, has been put in charge of the investigation into Wiersum’s murder.
Concern has been growing over increased violent crime levels in Amsterdam, where recreational drug use has long been tolerated, creating a flourishing underworld of dealers and suppliers. A leading police union said the situation was out of control.
“This is confirmation that we live in a narco-state,” said Jan Struijs of the NPB union, which last year warned that the government and politicians were underestimating the scale of organised crime in the country.
A report last month for Amsterdam council said the city’s relaxed drugs policies had “given free rein” to “drugs criminals, hustlers, parasites, middlemen and extortionists”, adding: “Drug-related organised crime – the ‘underworld’ – now exerts a significant influence on our city.”
Two of the main suspects in the case Wiersum was working on, Ridouan Taghi and Said Razzouki, are on the Netherlands’ most wanted list and the subjects of international arrest warrants.
Eleven men, all alleged members of a cocaine-smuggling gang, are in custody, including Bakkali, who has provided police with more than 1,500 pages of statements against the group in exchange for a more lenient sentence.
The AD newspaper said the murder marked the beginning of a “new, dark phase” for the country, adding that although in the Netherlands “the prime minister still cycles to work” and lawyers, judges and prosecutors “move unguarded through life … the underworld has just strengthened its hold on the upper world”.
The paper said that despite plenty of government money and declarations of good intent, authorities “do not yet have a grip on the threat”, leaving police and justice officials “at the mercy of a narco-state over which the government has no control”.
The NRC Handelsblad newspaper said the Netherlands was “naive” in its approach to drugs, citing EU policing officials and unnamed sources in the drugs world, particularly Colombia, who allege the country is “the logistical centre for the cocaine trade in western Europe”.
The paper said that based on the 70,000kg cocaine seized in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam in 2018, at least 200,000kg must have been brought successfully into the Netherlands, worth an estimated €5bn (£4.4bn).
NRC said it was doubtful whether authorities had yet fully grasped the extent of the impact of such sums on Dutch society. “Put simply,” the paper said, “that kind of money buys anything – cars and nice houses, but also contract killers and corrupt officials.”.
John van den Heuvel, a crime correspondent who has been given police protection when reporting on Dutch gangs, told state radio he was “extremely concerned, again, at the way in which organised crime is underestimated in the Netherlands. Of everything I’ve experienced, this is an absolute low.”
Drugs In Holland: EU Report Points To Holland As Largest Drug Trading Hub
According to the EU Drug Market Report, produced by the EMCDDA, Holland is the number one producer, processor and transit point for drugs in Europe.
The drugs in Holland get imported from all over the globe and we return the favor with large exports.
To give our readers an idea about Europe’s largest drug supplier we’ve listed 10 things about the Dutch drug trade.
1. Europe’s Coke Supplies Arrive In Rotterdam
Around 25 to 50 percent of European coke travels trough the port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest seaport. The port handles around 11 million freight containers every year. Dutch port authorities only check around 5000 of them.
2. No Ingenious Smuggling Techniques
Drug smugglers in Holland have mostly ditched the old ways of hiding contraband in fluffed toys or fruit transports. Instead they have opted for enlisting corrupt port employees. Traffickers bribe port workers in both the exporting and importing ports to get illegal drugs in Holland.
3. Coke in Holland Is Cheap
Thanks to the massive in-and outflows coke, by comparison to other European countries, is relatively cheap in Holland. Quality coke will set you back around 50 euros per gram compared to 120 euros in some European countries or more than 200 euros in Australia.
4. MDMA Is As Dutch As Dutch Stroopwafels
Around 8 percent of Dutch people have used MDMA once in their live (830,000 persons). The European average for MDMA use is just 0,5 percent.
5. MDMA Production in Holland
Red: amphetamine production, Blue: methamphetamine production, Pink: MDMA production
Source: Europol, EU Drug Markets Report, In-dept analyses, 2016, page. 67 especially page. 125.
According to the EMCDDA report the production of MDMA in Holland is becoming ever more professional. Some production locations use selfmade reaction vessels of up to 750 liters. Automation has reached a level where almost no manual labour is necessary.
6. MDMA Exports
Dutch MDMA is all over the globe! According to Vice.com a quick glance at pillreports.net shows Dutch pill designs like the orange lion, Heineken and tulips can be found from India to Australia to Texas.
7. Almost All The Hash In Holland Is Imported
Old trading routes from North Africa and the Middle East still play a vital role for the hash trade in Holland. Most of the hash arrives trough Spain from Morocco.
Morocco is the major supplier of Dutch hash.
This has led to many Moroccan criminal gangs in Holland. Most of these gangs are referred to as the “Mocro Maffia”.
Red: Afghan hash trade routes, Blue: Moroccan hash trade routes
Source: Europol, EU Drug Markets Report, In-dept analyses, 2016, page. 67 especially page. 125.
8. Cannabis Imports And Exports
Dutch cannabis exports and imports. Source: Europol, EU Drug Markets Report, In-dept analyses, 2016, page. 67 especially page. 125.
A Dutch governmental report stated that between 30 and 90 percent of Dutch grown cannabis ends up abroad. Conclusion: they haven’t got a clue.
9. The Province Of Brabant Is Considered To Be The Supermarket For Foreign Dealers
Brabant has the dubious honor, in the Netherlands and abroad, of being one of Europe’s top criminal performers.
The province, located in the south of Holland, is home to professional criminal organisations operating far beyond Dutch borders.
Brabant’s top economic sectors are: chemistry, agrifood, logistics and high tech.
Just like these sectors, the drug industry mainly does export. And just like these sectors the drug industry innovates its growing techniques and its accompanying equipment.
It operates with a circle of trusted suppliers and uses the strategic location of Brabant, and the presence of many logistics companies, for the export and transportation of drugs.
Numerous international connections are also used to strengthen links with criminal networks elsewhere in Europe, giving way to even better export opportunities for the Brabant XTC pills, weed and raw materials for drugs.
Brabant has in a sense achieved the role as the supermarket for foreign dealers where everything is for sale. It is difficult to get an indication on how much money is spent in this clandestine industry. Yet there are indications that it has to be a huge number.
The police and the justice department conclude, based on investigations and data from informants, that 60 hemp syndicates are active in the city of Tilburg alone and make around 800 million euros a year, or the entire city budget of Tilburg.
The drug industry has also been a job engine for the 2500 people who work in the underground ‘weed industry’ and who, with minimal efforts, make large annual salaries.
10. The War On Drugs In Holland
Did you know that producing cannabis for commercial purposes is illegal here?
A lot of people still believe growing marijuana in Holland is legal. Well that’s sort of the case. Every person in Holland is allowed to have five cannabis plants for own use.
Industrial production however is strictly forbidden.
The Netherlands has soft drug laws – especially when you’d compare them with countries like the United States, Australia, Indonesia or the Philippines. Sentences range between a fine and a couple of years in prison if you get caught producing or trafficking drugs. Compare that to the death penalty in Indonesia.
Entrance of Jellinek Amsterdam, where you can get your drugs tested!