Spoiler: who on it dark web shows an interest in purchasing weapons runs the risk of contact with American undercover agents. They will then instruct you exactly with which password and in which terminology you can close the sale and for what amount. They then inform their Dutch police liaison about this. After that, a local police pseudo-cop team is ready to close the trap. After which you end up in a moody courtroom in The Hague.
Juan (35) and Dieudonné (34), cousins, met at a Hornbach branch in The Hague “to see if it was real”. Then they stopped at a BP station where suddenly “all red lights on my T-shirt” appeared.
No gun was delivered and no money paid. The Glock pistols ordered were fiction. Juan wanted only one at first, but “it was only possible from five”. And, crucially, he wanted to “just see, not buy.” He acted out of boredom, out of interest “to see how something like this goes.” Just like when you go to Footlocker to look for a new pair of sneakers – looking isn’t always buying. Did he want to resell? It had “gone through his head, but it was not there yet.”
Viewed in this way, it remained an imaginary crime, followed by a criminal case about wrongful intentions. In which the perpetrators are also victims, of themselves. The main role is for Juan, who repeatedly says that he has been stupid, “didn’t think it all through well”. And now already five months in custody regretting. His job as an employee at a housing corporation is on the line. He can only pay his rent by borrowing that amount per month from friends and family. And the further payment of 13,000 euros in rent debt from a business adventure of ten years ago will now no longer be possible. That was his motive: money problems. He paid off 600 euros a month. He wanted to find out if it was indeed possible to buy weapons that easily. But it was mainly about ‘looking’ and not about buying, he insists.
Dieudonné had a supporting role, his detention had already been suspended. He is an entrepreneur, owner of a beauty salon and a wholesaler, with eleven employees. And father of three children. He himself thinks that he has mainly tried to slow down his nephew; that is supported by the many app conversations. And contradicted by the fact that Dieudonné took more than 1,000 euros in his sock to the gas station. Juan was there ready to invest his piggy bank of about 5,000 euros in this great opportunity. At least that was the idea. Yet the officer calls this attempted sale “undermining”. After all, such weapons are not (re)sold for sport shooting, but for liquidations and extortion, the officer believes. Dieudonné was “fully informed”, went along with everything and made just as wrong choices as Juan. According to the officer, both suspects must hand over their seized money to the state. Juan should receive eighteen months in prison, six of which are conditional, Dieudonné twelve months, four of which are conditional.
The lawyers strongly object. They admit that there was an interest in weapons, but no intention to buy. Juan has been persuaded, provoked and instructed in so many words. But he came to nothing. The police intervened too early to prove attempted purchase, they believe. There is also a clear lack of formality in the file because it is not clear which part of the digital conversation has now been conducted with American and which part with Dutch agents. This together results in a ‘violation of the obligation to report’. And thus a potential deception on the part of the court because the criminal investigation would then not have been verifiable and not public.
The court convicts two weeks later Juan to twelve months in prisonof which four conditional and Dieudonné up to eight months, four of which are conditional. His share was smaller and it was only an attempt. The court has established that the men worked together, arranged transport and money and clearly showed their own initiative to buy weapons.