Justice wants Martien R. from Oss to serve sixteen years for drug and arms trafficking. His relatives also heard years of imprisonment demanded against them in a nine-hour indictment before the court in Den Bosch. There is an appeal.
A higher sentence than sixteen years is not possible for the crimes of which Martien R. (52) is suspected. That sentence was also demanded and imposed at the court in Den Bosch, in September 2021. The Public Prosecution Service spoke of a family ‘who lived in a world with their own rules and believed themselves to be untouchable’.
Family
Twelve co-defendants, ten of whom are direct relatives of R., were sentenced to ten years and eight months after a more than nine-hour argument. In many cases, the requirements are higher than the previously imposed sentence.
Not all suspects listened to their demand themselves. Some returned to their cells prematurely because they thought it was taking too long. Lawyers also complained about the duration of the argument.
Barn
Martien R. and most of the other suspects were arrested in November 2019 during the major police operation Operation Alfa. More than four hundred officers flooded the caravan camp on Hoogheuvelstraat in Oss, where many of the suspects live. There was ‘the office’ hidden, a shed in which members of the alleged gang gathered. There were also raids in other places, such as Lith.
The police had secretly placed eavesdropping devices in ‘the office’. A hidden camera filmed how the men engaged in machine guns, among other things.
Coke
Justice sees Martien R. as the big boss of the criminal organization that he and his family members had. Large quantities of hard drugs and weapons were also found in underground storage locations at the trailer park.
The suspects are accused, among other things, of importing a total of approximately 1900 kilos of cocaine via the port of Antwerp in August 2018 and March 2019. But also of possession of a load of MDMA, the active substance of ecstasy.
Errors
Prosecutors went on to address the criticisms of the suspects and their lawyers for hours. They argue that mistakes were made at the start of the investigation. For example, the police would have eavesdropped for too long, as a result of which they deliberately allowed crimes to happen.
Lawyers also believe that messages from cracked crypto phones should not be used as evidence. They also believe that OM sought too much media to blacken R. and his family. Justice believes that everything happened according to the rules, as the court also noted in the verdict.
There were initially more suspects. Two suspects died during the process. One of them by suicide.
The pleas will follow soon. When the verdict is under investigation, it is not yet known.