FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Dutch Police Warn, The Netherlands Is Starting To Resemble a Narco-State
Feb. 21, 2018 (EIRNS)—According to a report just released from the Dutch police association, the “Netherlands fulfills many characteristics of a narco-state. Detectives are seeing a parallel economy emerge,” Britain’s Guardian reported today. The police report was based on interviews with 400 detectives, who say the police cannot combat the emergence of a parallel criminal economy with the resources allotted them.
Publicized by the De Telegraaf newspaper, the report asserts that “only one in nine criminal groups can be tackled with current personnel and resources.” The police association is demanding an additional 2,000 officers in order to make a dent in the organized crime apparatus.
The Guardian reports that critics of The Netherlands legal sale of cannabis in coffee shops and legalized prostitution—known “gedoogbeleid”—has turned the country into a major hub for human and drug trafficking. The European Union law-enforcement agency Europol reports that the large majority of the stimulant Ecstasy seized in Europe and the U.S. comes from labs in the southern Netherlands, run largely by Moroccan gangs involved in producing cannabis. In addition, approximately half of the €5.7 billion a year of cocaine consumed in Europe comes through the port of Rotterdam.
The police association’s report echoes concerns addressed in another draft report prepared by the office of the Public Prosecutor of the Dutch cabinet and leaked to the press earlier this year. That report stated that while there had been a 25% drop in crime over the past nine years, 3.5 million crimes go unreported every year. Also, the mayor of Amsterdam, its local police force and the city’s public prosecutor warned of the growth of organized crime and their inability to deal with it with current resources.
