A 38-year-old funeral director from Hoogvliet, who was taken off the road near Beugen with raw materials for drugs in his hearse, will serve 3.5 years in prison. The court in Den Bosch finds it proven that he must have been aware of the cargo.
Moreover, it was not the first time that the man drove around in a hearse with drugs. He had already been caught with heroin once. According to the judge, it has also been proven that there was a drug lab in his funeral home.
Escaped from professional ban
The public prosecutor was even stricter and demanded a prison sentence of six years and a professional ban of eleven years. The court speaks of ‘a very understandable request’, but cannot impose the professional ban. The Opium Act does not offer any possibility for this.
The man has been working in the funeral industry for eighteen years and was taken off the A77 highway near Beugen in his hearse last May. The police noticed that the car seemed very heavily loaded. Investigation revealed 675 kilos of raw materials for amphetamine.
After his arrest, the driver insisted that he did not know what was in the boxes. During the hearing he also did not want to make a confession: “Why would I want to know that? I was asked to drop something off and I often do that with my car.”
He also said he had no idea where the stuff should go (a place in Beugen) and what the man who asked him for this had planned to do with it. That client, a fifty-year-old man from Berkel-Enschot, was also in the hearse. He was also arrested and was due to be tried two weeks ago. However, he canceled at the last minute due to a night-time panic attack. He will now have to appear in court later.
Drug lab in funeral home
The criminal file showed that the two suspects were in cahoots and that both were also involved in the drug lab in the man’s funeral home in Rotterdam. The police had gone to investigate after the two men were arrested. A half-burned drug lab was found in the building. Barrels, stoves and cooking pans used for the production of drugs were also found. The man from Hoogvliet claimed to know nothing about this.
The judge called this shocking: a company in the funeral sector must treat the deceased and their relatives with the utmost respect and care. The suspect did not do this. He showed no respect for the deceased: the drug lab was in the same building where he received relatives to say goodbye to their loved ones.
Justice previously also concluded that he had used his funeral home as a cover.
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