Smuggling drugs is a risky ‘hobby’ and the crooks who do it know all too well. Simply hiding your powder or pills in a load of fruit is too easy. Then take a hearse, such as on the highway at Beugen. But criminals have been caught who were even more creative.
Addictive tomato paste
Just this year, two men from Berghem and Veghel ended up in prison after an ingenious attempt to smuggle 1200 kilos of heroin to our country. The drugs were hidden in hundreds of cans of tomato paste. The driver did not trust the business, because he had never transported tomato paste from Iran before. When Customs opened the cans, it turned out that there was no puree in it, but a brown chemical substance.
3D printed Nintendo games
This one definitely deserves the creativity award. In Werkendam, a mail order company that sold drugs all over the world, packaged in Nintendo games, was broken up in 2018. They turned packaging material for the drugs with a 3D printer. From make-up powder boxes to ink cartridges and computer game boxes. A brand sticker was stuck on it, but it contained drugs.
There’s a smell to that
Still a popular tactic: hiding drugs in your underpants. In recent years we regularly saw dealers pass by with a fortune in their underpants. For example, a 21-year-old man in Bergen op Zoom was caught with 53 bags of speed and heroin near his crotch.
Keep out of reach of children
The fact that criminals don’t find anything too crazy became apparent a few years ago in Lith. There, a drug-dealing father had hidden cocaine in the pram. Among the toys in the car, the police found several bags of cocaine. We can hope that those grabbing hands of the child did not touch it.
Sweets that will make you very happy
In the children’s category: sweets are also a popular hiding place. Earlier this year, someone in Tilburg received a load of candy, which was intended for another address. When he opened the box, he discovered quickly enough that he shouldn’t put a handful of it in his mouth. Ecstasy pills were hidden between the colorful sweets.
Sitting on black seed
Also creative: A man from Haarsteeg and a woman from Venlo managed to smuggle six kilos of cocaine from Curaçao to the Netherlands by hiding it in a chair. The police intercepted the package at Schiphol, replaced the drugs with plaster and had the package delivered to the woman. She received the package and was arrested.
Missed the train
Three men from Bergen op Zoom thought they were smart by hiding bags full of cocaine between the wheels of a freight train at Lage Zwaluwe station. What they didn’t know is that it’s swarming with police officers. And so they were caught. Under the train, the police found three bags of cocaine, with a street value of more than 1 million euros.
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