A 34-year-old man from Breda was arrested on Tuesday for trading in heavy illegal fireworks via the Telegram messaging service. The man is seen by the police as the leader of a gang that they have been investigating extensively in recent months. The suspect allegedly facilitates this trade by being the administrator of the Telegram site.
The house of the suspect Bredanaar was investigated by the police on Tuesday. No fireworks were found in the house. That was not expected, according to a police spokesperson. “We seized the suspect’s phone, among other things. Via the phone we ended up at the Telegram site. That way we could take it offline.”
In recent months, the special environmental team of the Zeeland-West Brabant police has conducted extensive research into offering professional fireworks to private individuals via Telegram. Investigators came across a group that traded heavy professional fireworks in this way. This, according to the police, with the now arrested Bredanaar as one of the ‘big men’ behind this.
The man has previously been convicted of offering heavy fireworks to private individuals. He is still in custody and being heard.
The police and the judiciary are conducting further investigations into the other managers of the group, suppliers and buyers of the fireworks.