TEN Colombians made cocaine in a shed in the polder near Steenbergen. They lived in the shed in a Pipowagen and tents between the hazardous chemicals. The court sentenced them to three years in prison for producing a large amount of cocaine.
The lab was discovered on March 31 last year in a polder just outside Steenbergen. Inside was a large boiler with heating coils. Agents found more than 66 kilos of coke in the warehouse. But there was also 1020 liters of drug waste stored there. And then there were tons and seven.
It was a coke laundry, a lab in which they extracted coke from smuggled material and then processed it into blocks of one kilo. It is not known from what material they obtained the coke. Often it is clothing, cardboard or coal.
Experts discovered that coke was produced on a large scale in the warehouse and that there were still enough raw materials to make even more drugs. The suspects said during their trial that they had come to the Netherlands for all kinds of reasons, but certainly not to make drugs.
“The Colombians were just a link in a greater whole.”
DNA of nine out of ten men was found in the shed, especially in gloves. The lawyers had asked for an acquittal.
It is clear to the court that a criminal organization does not allow ‘involuntary and ignorant persons’ in the lab. “They were only a link in a larger whole, but they did play an important role,” the judge ruled.
The officer had asked for four years in prison for the ten men. The court took into account the poor conditions in the warehouse. There was a huge stench inside. Moreover, it was not these ten people who reaped the big profits. Therefore, a three-year prison sentence was imposed.
The ten Colombians had not come to court, but had remained in prison. They have never been convicted in the Netherlands before.
READ ALSO: Lured to Brabant with quick money: for a singing career or for a cocaine job?