Yesterday at 8:00 PM • Modified yesterday at 9:04 PM
A garden gnome made from head to toe of MDMA and a hearse full of drugs. In Brabant, the police sometimes come across the most creative hiding places. The discovery of almost twelve kilos of ketamine in glued dolls at Vlijmen is therefore no exception. We have listed a few special places for you.
Police discovered almost twelve kilos of ketamine in the dolls and a medicine ball. They stood out because they were ‘suspiciously glued together’. During investigation at the police station it turned out that they were filled with drugs, the police reported on Instagram on Friday.
This is definitely not the first time that the police came across a striking image. In 2024, a garden gnome weighing two kilos turned up in Hank, which the police first mistook for an ordinary stone gnome. Only after a drug test did it appear that the statue consisted entirely of MDMA. The gnome made world news and was shared everywhere on social media.
Means of transport full of surprises
Cars appear to be popular creative hiding places. In 2023, a hearse in Berkel-Enschot transported 675 kilos of raw materials for amphetamine. The police tracked down the car because it was noticeably heavy and discovered that it served as a mobile warehouse for the drugs.
Old car doors have also served as a hiding place: in February 2017, 51 kilos of cocaine were found in containers with old car doors en route to Brabant.
Bags of drugs were also found in the interior light of a car in Eindhoven in 2024. What looked like an ordinary light in the roof turned out to be a secret room in which someone had hidden dozens of bags of amphetamine and cocaine.
At home with family
Sometimes the creative hiding places for drugs are closer than you think. In 2017, one of the suspects of international drug trafficking had his grandmother’s shed searched, where more than 63,000 ecstasy pills were hidden. The suspect tried to outsmart the police, but his supply of drugs was still seized.
Where you don’t expect it
Creativity knows no boundaries. This became apparent again in 2025 in Best when a dealer was caught red-handed with balls of cocaine and heroin hidden in a hollow adapter of a charger. No matter how hard he tried to hide the drugs, the police managed to find the small shipment.
Not all hiding places are small or cozy. For example, in 2024 someone tried to play it smart with a huge load of 3,200 kilos of crystal meth in Oosterhout, with a street value of 22.4 million euros. The drugs were hidden in bags of normal soil from Mexico, intended for a company in Den Hout. Only after the cargo was destroyed due to contamination with copper and PFAS did the catch come to light.
Games and puzzle boxes
Sometimes the creativity of drug trafficking goes beyond Brabant. In 2023, a group from Made shipped drugs hidden in game and puzzle boxes to customers around the world, from Belgium to the US. During a raid, police also found machines, scales and more than 51 kilos of drugs in a home, ready to send the packages.
Body as a storage place
But perhaps the craziest place to hide drugs is your own body. In 2024, a man was caught in Eindhoven with an entire sock full of hard drugs in his underpants, while another dragged dozens of bags between his buttocks, plus 74 more bags in a secret room in his car.
The year before, a man in Breda tried to smuggle pony packs containing cocaine in the same way.
The police must therefore always remain alert and sometimes think just as creatively as the smugglers to find these kinds of bizarre hiding places.
