This afternoon, prison sentences of 10, 9 and 6 years were demanded against four North Hollanders. The Public Prosecution Service sees the men as a group that was involved in importing hundreds of kilos of coke from South America to Amsterdam. Partly thanks to a corrupt port employee.
“A well-prepared operation,” the Public Prosecution Service calls the smuggling in the port of the capital in July 2022.
That day, truck driver J. van C. from Enkhuizen drives early in the morning to a Zaandam transport company with a terminal in the Western Docklands of Amsterdam. A few days earlier he had ‘heard’ that ‘the container’ was coming, he said in court today.
“I’m in,” was said to have been sent via messages. A few minutes later the man is arrested by an arrest team. In the container that the driver had to pick up, the police find 1,120 kilos of coke among a load of cocoa beans.
De Enkhuizer says he was completely surprised by the catch. “If I had known what was in it, I would never have done it,” he shouts into the microphone.
According to the justice department, the mastermind behind this shipment is a pair from Purmerend. The men IZ (43) and KK (27) know each other from their work at a logistics company in Amsterdam. Today they greet each other in court with a hug.
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Together they are said to have prepared drug transports. Z. is said to have contact with international drug traffickers and, according to the justice department, also communicated in chats in English. According to the prosecutor, 27-year-old K. also drove a car near the truck to ‘keep an eye on things’.
“We are the boss in Amsterdam”, would have been sent to each other. “We can play undisturbed for years” and there was talk of a ‘top line’.
Both men deny knowing about drugs that July. “I never knew there was coke in the container,” said KK. His companion added today: “I was very shocked by the load.”
They said that they had made preparations to set up a ‘sustainable cocaine line’ between South America and Amsterdam. With test charges.
‘Corrupt port employee’
Then the fourth suspect. A corrupt port employee, according to the Public Prosecution Service. AS (29) from Alkmaar operated the buttons at the Zaanse transport company during the coke smuggling. In chat conversations with the people of Purmerend he would be called ‘the tall one’.
The trio visited a house in Noord-Scharwoude together, a gym in Wijdewormer and met at a restaurant in Heerhugowaard.
Images of work schedules and port systems are said to have been shared in their communications via encrypted telephones.
“I’m an ordinary boy, I’ve always worked hard”
The Alkmaarder is said to have ensured that the container with drugs was removed from the system, so that the truck driver could drive the load off the transport company’s premises unnoticed.
He himself denies corruption. “I just did my job as a port employee, handling a container as quickly as possible,” the port employee explains today. “I’m an ordinary guy, I’ve always worked hard.”
Previous load of coke
The Public Prosecution Service states that the suspects carried out ‘very sophisticated work’. And he also believes that drugs worth millions of euros have been smuggled into Amsterdam before. That would have happened in December 2021.
She therefore demands ten years in prison against the men from Purmerend. The judiciary also wants to reclaim more than a million euros from the men. If it is up to the justice department, the Alkmaarder will have to suffer for nine years and pay back 22,000 euros of ‘earned’ money.
Six years in prison have been demanded against the truck driver from Enkhuizen. Justice could not link him to a previous ‘successful’ coke transport. The lawyers of Alkmaarder and West Fries will speak on Monday. The judge will make a ruling in two weeks.