A 39-year-old former restaurant owner from Emmen faces 200 hours of community service and a three-week suspended prison sentence for growing cannabis. In September 2021, the agents found 472 hemp plants and 2.5 kilos of dried hemp tops in his home.
The choice to grow hemp was born out of necessity. As it turned out today during the court case in Assen. The resident of Emmen did not appear, but his lawyer did. He said that the suspect had a restaurant at the time, he got into trouble due to a car accident. The corona measures added to that and the man fell deep into debt. He saw no other way out than growing hemp.
The power consumption was noticed by the energy company and an investigation followed. The police saw sufficient reason to take a look at the house. The officers saw furniture outside the house and heard a buzzing sound inside. Everything else was tight.
They decided to go in. The whole house was set up for the cannabis farm. Every square meter was used for this.
The resident was home. He confessed and did everything on his own, he told the officers. The public prosecutor found this hard to believe: “The nursery was set up very professionally.” The plaintiff assumed that there had been one previous harvest. She thought that the illegal profit, almost 61,000 euros, should be recovered from the man.
The lawyer thought that the agents had too few legal reasons to invade the house and pleaded for an acquittal. The court will rule in two weeks.