Rotterdam drug criminals have been causing unrest in Limburg for years and that was reason for the judiciary to intervene in 2020. Dozens of arrests followed, but the problem still persists.
The last suspects from the previous wave of arrests appeared in court on Tuesday.
Also read: Rotterdammers on drug holiday: expensive clothes and kilos of drugs
no prison
According to the justice system, Oussama Z. (27), Salah-Eddine E. (30) and Brahim H. (28) have formed a criminal organization that sold cocaine and heroin in and around Kerkrade in 2019 and 2020. They are said to have been supported by Fouad (33), Salah-Eddine’s brother. The prosecutor demanded prison sentences of up to two years and fines of 10,000 euros on top of that.
The men will not go back to prison on this demand; a large part of the sentence is conditional and the rest they served in pre-trial detention. The plaintiff was lenient with that. She took into account elapsed time since arrest and improved behavior of suspects. Lawyers Peer Szymkowiak, Haroon Raza and Johan Mühren argued for acquittal on almost all counts.
harsh reality
On 24 May, the judge will make a decision, which means that one of the last files from the Rotterdam approach to justice in 2020 has been completed. ‘Project Rotterdam’ resulted in 44 arrests. “Unfortunately, it is also the reality that if three are arrested, we will see three new people from Rotterdam that same evening,” the prosecutor said during the trial on Tuesday.
Also read: Rotterdam drug criminals tackled: 44 arrests
Under your own power
The study that yielded results in 2020 was a Limburg study. Justice in our province received little or no support from colleagues from Rotterdam and the surrounding area. After the arrests in Limburg, this made it difficult to penetrate deeper into drug networks that are often controlled from the port city.
In addition, the police and judiciary in Limburg are faced with a significant capacity problem. This meant, for example, that it was quiet for a while in the Parkstad region, which ‘project Rotterdam’ mainly focused on, but that the problems simply shifted to Geleen. There was then no manpower to deal with the drug criminals there as well.
Limburg banned
Many of the arrested Rotterdammers have been convicted. One of the most important facets of that conviction is a restraining order. Some will not be allowed to enter the Parkstad region in the coming months or years, others have even been banned for the entire province. That should stop them from resuming trade in the border region.