According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), there is an abundance of evidence against the suspects who are stuck for the artok of the Drents Museum in Assen. This was apparent during the first introductory session of Chesley W. (36) and Bernhard Z. (35) from Heerhugowaard.
There are enough compelling reasons to hold both men for the time being, the judge decided at this hearing. Everything has been pulled out of the closet in terms of research options, the public prosecutor said. Among other things, tapped, observed and undercover agents have been deployed. This eventually led to the arrest of six men and a woman, all from Noord-Holland. Three of them are still stuck.
A major explosion preceded the burglary in the Drents Museum. According to the public prosecutor, an extremely heavy fireworks bomb has been used for this. “Heavier than a Cobra 6 or 8 (heavy fireworks, ed.), The investigation into this is still ongoing.” The OM is convinced that the three men who are stuck have committed the thud. The third suspect Jan B. (20) from Heerhugowaard was arrested on April 23.
Shortly after the Kraak, a resident of the Pelikaanstraat in Assen told that she had heard the valve of a clothing container in her street at night. She heard a car driving away quickly afterwards. The agents found a sports bag with clothing in the container. The cell material of these suspects was then found that matched with DNA in the Dutch database.
Glass splinters were also in the bag. Research shows that this is almost certainly about glass residues from the broken display cases in the museum. It contained the stolen historic golden helmet and three gold bracelets. The pieces were on loan from the National Historical Museum in Bucharest. The sports bag found was found to have been purchased by the 35-year-old suspect.
The track led to a recreation house at Lunsbergen Park in Borger. The 20-year-old suspect was the tenant. In that house the agents also found glass splinters, which can be linked to the Drents Museum. The end of the door of that house was opened shortly after the thud from the outside, the system of the park showed. In the canal near the museum, the agents found a sledgehammer and a front hammer, bought at a hardware store in Assen.
The 20-year-old suspect is recognized in the images as the buyer of this material. The suspects made use of disposable phones, which they bought through marketplace. On Chesley W.’s phone, the officers found a video of the street where the flight car was stolen. The car was later burned out again at Rolde. The youngest suspect told the undercover agents that he had robbed the art pieces, together with W. and Z ..
He would also have told that W. was the creator of the robbery and transported the art treasures in his van. After the robbery he had stored it. According to the public prosecutor, the men had only one goal: to make money quickly. The OM does not suspect that the art treasures have melted.
It is to find everything in the art treasures. “The removed Dacic art treasures are Romanian cultural heritage of invaluable value. The helmet is 2,500 years old and tells part of the history of Romania,” said the prosecutor.
The suspects have mainly been silent so far. This setup works for the OM as a criminal offense. “The insurance value of 5.7 million euros from the disappeared art treasures will be recovered from them. They will have to pay for this for the rest of their lives,” said the public prosecutor.
The judge also warned the suspects: “There are more indications that argue against you. You don’t relieve them, you will not come up with verifiable defenses. We have to do it with the data in the file.”
Opposite the judges, the suspects wanted to say that they are enormously angry about showing photos of faces without beams over the eyes. “Our family suffers below, we have a lot of problems with this,” they said. The police did this to put them under pressure. “Perhaps it will be searched for in the wrong corner,” said Dennis Vlielander, the lawyer of W .. He asked to stop inhumane research methods, as interrogated at three o’clock in the night.
The following public session with the three suspects who are still stuck will follow on July 30. Then the custody of the third man, Jan B. (20), will also be discussed. The OM is heading for a substantive treatment in the second quarter of 2026.