Today, four suspects from Emmer-Compascuum and Groningen were sentenced to five years in prison for facilitating large-scale cannabis cultivation, the production and trade of soft drugs, money laundering and possession of weapons.
It is the first substantive hearing in the so-called investigation Marl, with three other suspects also due to appear in court next week. The group was active in both the Netherlands and Germany.
The police tracked down the suspects based on anonymous reports from the Netherlands and Germany, supplemented with information from cracked telephone messages.
In February last year, large quantities of cash and cannabis and several firearms and ammunition were found at various locations.
One of the suspects, a 43-year-old man from Albania, had one since 2011 growshop in Emmen. 309 kilos of hemp, gold bracelets, a quantity of gemstones and a yellow vacuum cleaner containing 85,000 euros in cash were found with him. That would all be criminal money.
According to the suspect, the money all came from private buyers. Because he could not deposit cash via the bank, he had to put it somewhere. “Burglars can’t find it like that,” he explained.
A 46-year-old female suspect found 45,000 euros in cash in a black suitcase, as well as gold bracelets and jewelry. A 54-year-old co-suspect is said to have hidden a sports bag with automatic weapons, including a machine gun, and ammunition in the attic.
The suspects controlled five hemp production locations in Weiteveen, Oostwolde, Molbergen, Schwanewende and Hamburg. Some of those nurseries had more than 1,400 plants. The nursery in Schwanewende alone would have a yield of 1.6 million euros.
The Public Prosecution Service said it had a lot of evidence in the case. For example, the suspects were seen on camera images, tapped conversations were recorded by the police and telephone masts were hit at the locations.
Furthermore, DNA testing was done on items belonging to the suspects (which had been left behind) and cannabis plants from the nurseries. This showed that the plants came from the same mother plant.
The Public Prosecution Service spoke of serious facts. “Drugs are associated with many other forms of crime and violence, often with fatal consequences.”
The highest sentence was demanded against the 54-year-old suspect who had all kinds of heavy weapons in his possession: 60 months. Against the owner of the growshopwho had an organizational role, were sentenced to 48 months.
The 46-year-old female suspect was sentenced to 24 months and a 51-year-old final suspect was sentenced to 30 months.
The defense will speak the day after tomorrow and next Monday three other suspects in the case will appear in court.