The Drents village of Nijeveen was the scene of a huge drugs bust last week
Translated by Thomas Ansell
The quiet village of Nijeveen in Drenthe was the scene of an enormous police operation last Friday, however it is only today that the police have released details of the huge drugs bust. 16 people have been arrested, including the owner of the horse stables that housed the ‘cocaine laundry’.
Police found tens of thousands of litres of chemicals, and about 100 kilos of cocaine base material- which, according to the police, is the largest bust of its kind in the Netherlands, reports the Dagblad van het Noorden.
Further police investigations linked to the original raid took place in Apeldoorn, which resulted in a further arrest. In total, three Dutch citizens were arrested, one Turkish citizen, and thirteen Colombian citizens. All will come before a court in the coming days.
It took police a total of three days to clear the farm buildings of all cocaine-related equipment, though most was located in on large barn. “Considering the number of people that worked there, the equipment, amount of chemicals, and so on, it is likely that the production capacity of the drugs lab was between 150 and 200 kilos of cociaine per day. This amount would have a street value of between 4.5 and 6 million euros, once cut down in strength”, wrote chied inspector André van Rijn.
The site has been referred to as a ‘laundry’ because it didn’t actually produce the cocaine itself, rather it processed it. Cocaine is generally imported within, or sprayed upon, a source material, which is then ‘laundered’ in facilities like the one that was discovered. This could even be clothing, says the Dagblad. In Apeldoorn, 120,000 kilos of the source material was discovered, leading to the other arrest.
The owner of the stables lived on the site with his 92-year old mother. The mother has not been arrested, with the Dagblad reporting a neighbour saying that she is now living outside the area. “It’s already all enough for her”, said the neighbour.
According to the KvK, the business premises was listed as a horse-breeding business.
