The trade in Cobras is increasing enormously and people from Brabant now seem to play a leading role in this. De Telegraaf reports on Saturday that the underworld is increasingly making use of the explosive power of these heavy and illegal fireworks, for example during explosive attacks. Protesters and hooligans use it to pelt cops. Three Brabanders have been arrested.
The Public Prosecution Service is now conducting the largest investigation ever into the trade in Cobras. In the Ellesmere case, 10,000 Cobra 6 and other heavy fireworks were seized. The three arrested suspects aged 18, 21 and 39 come from Veghel, Son en Breugel and Eindhoven. More arrests may be expected.
Street trade
“The street traders of these heavy fireworks are often teenagers. They are often 14 or years old,” explains prosecutor Karin Broere.
“First they buy fireworks on Telegram for their own use. Then they buy several boxes for trade. They make a profit of about fifty percent. They are often young people with a clean criminal record from a good family. Some of them later become large boy in crime.”
In The Telegraph Broere is worried about the youth throwing themselves into the trade. “Those teenagers are sucked into the serious criminal environment.”
Thousands of cobras
The Ellesmere case started on December 13 when a package containing 5400 Cobras was delivered to Eindhoven. It turned out to be the wrong delivery and the company called the police. He immediately started an investigation and two days later another batch of 1100 Cobras was seized in a residential area in Boekel. Later, another 1500 kilograms of heavy fireworks were discovered in Eindhoven.
Several times a week an attack on a building takes place in the Netherlands. ATMs are also regularly blown up in the Netherlands and Germany. In Germany, there were almost 500 last year.
Explosives
The explosives used by the attackers in explosive raids are almost always made from flash powders from Cobras. Where criminals used to place hand grenades at a building, they now leave behind a home-made bomb from illegal fireworks.
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