A 33-year-old man from Assen has been sentenced by the court to an eighteen-month prison term for preparing large-scale drug trafficking and involvement in the sale of cannabis. He was acquitted of money laundering, which meant that part of the sentence imposed by the Public Prosecution Service (OM) was dropped.
According to the court, in 2020 and 2021, the man and others were involved in the sale and delivery of approximately 15 kilos of hemp to buyers in Germany. He also made preparations for the trade in hard drugs. This involved a batch of one kilo of cocaine, 50,000 ecstasy tablets and 25 liters of amphetamine oil.
It has not been proven that the trade in these hard drugs actually took place. However, the court considers it proven that the suspect has carried out concrete preparatory actions to make this drug trade possible.
The investigation into the man arose from the large-scale cracking of the encrypted communication service EncroChat in 2020. French and Dutch investigative services therefore gained access to messaging traffic that was frequently used within the criminal circuit. From those intercepted messages, the man from Assen also came into the picture.
The Public Prosecution Service demanded a prison sentence of 26 months. In addition to the drugs offences, the Public Prosecution Service also found it proven that the man had laundered more than 58,000 euros. However, the court acquitted him of this.
When determining the sentence, the court took into account that the suspect only had an eye for financial gain and did not take into account the social damage caused by drug trafficking. At the same time, the judge took into account the passage of time since the offenses were committed. Due to the acquittal of money laundering, the man does not have to pay anything back.