A 43-year-old man from Duiven has been sentenced to 28 months in prison for operating a cannabis farm in a sea container underground in Emmen and laundering more than four tons.
In June last year, the police found the nursery under his house in Emmen on the Schietbaanweg in Emmen. He rented out the house, a stone’s throw from the police station.
After anonymous tips, the agents went to investigate last year. The nursery was hidden under the pond in the garden. The man from Duiven knew nothing, he told the judge earlier. The judge did not agree.
The man bought the property in 2013 but hardly ever came there. That was the reason he rented it out from 2015. The tenant was a 39-year-old man from Nederhorst den Berg. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison, of which almost 17 months were suspended. He no longer needs to go to jail.
The man from Nederhorst den Berg and a 44-year-old man from Didam were arrested on the spot. The man from Didam took care of the plants and was sentenced to 78 days in prison, of which 56 days were suspended. In addition, the man must perform 80 hours of community service.
The more than 1800 cuttings, almost 800 plants and 63 kilos of hemp tops were cleared.
The judge finds it plausible that the nursery was in operation from January 2015 to June 2021. He took it seriously that the three wanted to enrich themselves illegally and did not care about the harmfulness that cannabis cultivation entails.
The Public Prosecution Service still wants to recover the illegally earned money from them.