Houses shot at, homemade bombs in front of the door and blown up cars. These are attacks with a lot of impact, for which 21 percent of those cases have been arrested in the past 2.5 years. Clients often remain unaffected. “The criminal environment is hardening. These investigations are often a long-term issue,” says the Brabant chief of police Ron van Brussel.
“I see a hand grenade, on high, at the bakery. Paris Boulangerie. Can you come as soon as possible?” On the night of May 23, 2021, this report is received at the control room. A young man calls with haste in his voice. Police cars race with equal urgency to the bakery on the Baliendijk in Breda. There is indeed a hand grenade hanging from the shutter.
“Perilously dangerous,” a police spokesperson later told Opsporing Verzocht. The municipality is closing the case, also because this is already the fifth in a series of six violent incidents against one and the same family. Previously, the target survived a liquidation attempt and his brother got blackmailers at the door. Other times, bombs were also found at companies belonging to this family: the bakery and a car garage.
The target and his family don’t want to say much about it. Although it is suspected that they are involved in a brutal cocaine war between top criminals. According to the police and the judiciary, these are extreme examples of intimidation, threats and extortion. Often a result of quarrels in the criminal circuit.
“Victims don’t always have an interest in telling what the context is.”
In 2.5 years, there were 95 such incidents in our province, according to research by Omroep Brabant. In 21 percent of these cases someone was arrested. Investigations are complicated and time-consuming, according to the investigative services. “Some victims do not want or dare not tell where the threat comes from”, press officer Janine Kramer of OM East Brabant names the biggest problem.
According to detective chief Ron van Brussel of the Zeeland-West-Brabant police, the role of statements by victims is crucial, but it is often lacking. “Often they are afraid of reprisals. Sometimes it has to do with the criminal acts of the victim himself. Even then they don’t want to say anything.”
Although that is not always the case. “In conflicts in the relational sphere, people do want to tell what is going on. That helps us enormously,” says Van Brussel.
“There are few people on the street who see it happening.”
According to the investigative services, another factor that makes investigations difficult is the time at which violent intimidation is committed. This almost always happens late in the evening or at night. “There are few people on the street who see it happening,” says Kramer. “If there are camera images, then the question is how good they are.”
Little cooperation from victims and few witnesses. And also in terms of trace research, the loot is often meager. “If there is a shot, you examine the casings. But often it is only limited what you find,” says Kramer. However, the investigative services are not powerless. Van Brussel: “We can still do a lot, such as technical, tactical and digital research.”
“Performers often don’t even know what the underlying conflict is.”
And if it is then possible to apprehend someone, the executors are usually caught, the principals are kept out of harm’s way. Van Brussel: “Executors who lay hand grenades or shoot at houses are recruited by criminal networks. They often do not even know who the client is or what the underlying conflict is. That could be a missing batch of cocaine, a hemp robbery or previous violence. They carry out the attack purely for the money.”
It takes a lot of investigative capacity to find out about the clients. “If a executor is caught, he has no interest in making statements because of a threat to him,” says Van Brussel. “You often see that there are several discs between the executor and the client.”
But even with a suspect in the picture, it does not always lead to a conviction. This turned out to be the case in the case of the hand grenade at the bakery in Breda. For that, the police and the judiciary thought they would put the layer behind bars.
During the trial it turned out that the hand grenade was wrapped in cling film, on which DNA of two people was found, including that of the arrested suspect. But according to the court, this was not watertight evidence. It was unclear when and how the man’s DNA ended up on the foil, the court ruled. That is why he was acquitted.
For the liquidation attempt in the same case, a 23-year-old man was sentenced to 7 years in prison. A substantive hearing is scheduled for November for the extortion.
accountability
Omroep Brabant made an inventory of how often explosives and heavy fireworks were left at buildings, they went off and how often houses were shot at. The police could not give exact information about this, because cases are registered differently. Omroep Brabant arrived at these figures on the basis of police press releases, media articles, verdicts and inquiries with the Public Prosecution Service.
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