The Northern Netherlands saw more weed nurseries shut down in 2018 than in previous years.
Translation by Thomas Ansell
As reported by RTV Noord, the northern Netherlands is the only region in the country to have seen an increase in the number of marijuana-producing outfits shut down in the year 2018 compared to 2017. In the rest of the country, there has been a fall in the number of successful closures.
The overall number of nurseries in the northern Netherlands that were closed by police totalled 404 in 2017, and that number rose to 436 in 2018. The police think that this increase is more attributable to successfully detecting the facilities: the region has a special team dedicated to identifying weed growing facilities.
“It’s not only the organised crime hiding behind these activities, but also the risks of producing cannabis in this way, including the increased risks of fires, that are a large problem” John Jespers, the national coordinator for removing marijuana growing facilities, told RTV Noord.
Jespers also noted a new trend in the criminal world: criminals are increasingly expanding their plantations abroad. “But I think that this isn’t so much a rule as a trend,” said Jespers.
