Three suspects are brought in one by one E2 of the Hague court. Under the guidance of armed parquet guards – one for every suspect. A fourth suspect has failed on Thursday afternoon.
The four men – 31,28, 28, and 20 years old respectively – all come from The Hague. They are accused of possessing and trading cocaine. One suspect was arrested last year, the other three were arrested last April.
This Thursday, the court ruled whether the detention of the suspects should be extended. So far nothing special.
Refrigerators
And yet this is not an average criminal case, as hundreds come to court every year. In the criminal environment, this criminal proceedings look at this criminal proceedings. The cocaine in question was stolen, on August 29 last year near the port of Antwerp. It concerns 1,400 kilos, which at that time represented a value of almost 40 million euros at the wholesale market.
After the theft in Belgium, the stolen party drove to a shed in Oud-Gastel in West Brabant. And there the four suspects unload the container. The cocaine is in thirteen heavy metal trays, hidden between an old washing machine, refrigerators, heavy iron bars.
The Hague is the epicenter, but an explosion in Valkenburg is also linked to the conflict
Images from security cameras show that the suspects are struggling with the scrap and the bins. One of them has taped some of those cameras, but two not: one that films inside and one who takes on movements outside the shed.
The police have observed a total of 25 people on those images. It can also be seen that the cocaine is removed in around fifty green bags, with thirteen cars.
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Shelling
Where did that cocaine ultimately go? Since the beginning of September last year, that question has been the subject of criminal investigation in the Netherlands and Belgium, where at least two men are stuck in connection with drug robbery. The criminal network is also being investigated that the transport of the 1,400 kilos has set up.
And those owners of the drugs started their own investigation into the disappeared merchandise and the responsible thieves. This led to an eruption of violence, in both the Netherlands and Belgium: the Public Prosecution Service suspects that at least eighteen incidents – explosions and shelling – are related to the underworld conflict about theft. For this, more than thirty people were arrested and prosecuted in other criminal cases.
That violence all starts with a series of explosions on October 7, 2024, in The Hague. The Hofstad is the epicenter of De Veke, but the violence is not centered: an explosion in Valkenburg is also linked to the conflict.
Robbed
The next series of incidents occurs on 10 October in Alphen aan den Rijn. A house is shot at the end of the afternoon. And that same evening a firework bomb of 25 Cobras is hung at the door of a home. The explosive turns out to be a blind man.
These incidents focus on the boss and the employee of a drinking trade. In a shed of that company, part of the drugs – how much exactly is not clear – is stored in eight boxes, after the theft in Antwerp.
But on the morning of October 10 it is discovered that six of the eight boxes were stolen from the shed. It seems that the thieves were robbed by other thieves.
Subsequently, the wrath of the Cocaine owners focuses on the owner of Loods and his employee, who nothing with the original rip had to do. That day, the beverage dealer receives messages from strangers, who hide behind the names ‘Killerzone’ and ‘Mercy is for the Weak’. The owners only make a statement, the message is, after the first outburst of violence in Alphen aan de Rijn. “This is the price that you are brutal. The price of a thief is a different story.”
Target
The threats also appear to have the addresses of family members of the beverage dealer and his employee. They are all brought out of safety outdoors on 10 October. That appears to be a sensible decision: in the following days the family members are increasingly threatened.
And that pattern also signs up in The Hague. Family members of the two men who are seen by the owners of the cocaine as the suppliers of the thieves are also seriously threatened. And some bombs go in The Hague.
That day, the beverage dealer receives messages from strangers, who hide behind the names ‘Killerzone’ and ‘Mercy is for the Weak’
This form of threat is called ‘target nitrate substitution’. In the criminal environment, this is a new method to settle conflicts. In short, if the target itself cannot be caught, the indirect route will be followed by threatening its loved ones.
Although no more bombs have been going on in The Hague since the end of last year, lawyers say sources in the criminal environment and the investigation – all anonymously – that the tension is not out of the blue. People are still being protected, although it is not entirely clear who and what that means exactly.
When the substantive handling of this case starts, it is not yet clear. But as long as the threat has not passed, there will continue to be a fear that new details will be known during the criminal case that will raise the unrest and the violence again.
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