A 30-year-old man from Emmen has been in custody since mid-October for possessing 25 liters of amphetamine oil. This oil can be used to make paste for the production of amphetamine (also known as speed), with a street value of 42,000 euros.
The barrel with amphetamine oil was found in Nieuw-Dordrecht on October 12.
At the time of his arrest, the Emmen resident was still on probation for previous convictions; In December he was sentenced to 164 days in prison (equal to pre-trial detention) for his involvement in a cannabis farm in Drachten. His brother-in-law was also arrested, but has now been released.
The man was part of a cannabis gang that was responsible for more cannabis farms in Drenthe, Friesland and Germany. The gang was rounded up in February 2022. The court in Groningen imposed prison sentences of more than five years. The gang surfaced after anonymous reports about a grow shop in Emmen.
In this amphetamine case, we were still waiting for reports from the Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI) on the composition of the oil. The telephones of both suspects are also still being read. The initial findings are worrying, the prosecutor said. For example, there was communication about the supply of raw materials for drug production.
The case was not substantively dealt with today, but the judge did decide to extend the man’s pre-trial detention by three months. The Emmen resident said he wanted to go home, back to his family. Due to his absence, his company is on the verge of collapse and the training of an amateur football club is in the doldrums, now that he is no longer active as a trainer.
However, his personal interests are not compelling enough for release, the judge said.