CRIME WARLORDS’ TORTURE CHAMBER
They were prisons.. one was solely for torture
A DENTIST’S chair sits in a soundproofed shipping container with handcuffs, pruning shears, a saw and scalpels at the ready nearby.
The sickening underworld torture chamber – also lined with foil in a bid to make it invisible to thermal cameras – was uncovered during a major operation that helped snare mob kingpins.
Previously untouchable crime lords and bent officers were among 746 suspects held after a Europe-wide criminal phone system was infiltrated.
And cracking the network led to the discovery of the torture chamber in Holland – along with six other shipping Six ‘cells’ also found at grim site as part of international bust containers used as cells. Police footage showed armed officers swooping on the site near the southern city of Bergen op Zoom, south of Rotterdam.
While only the torture chamber was soundproofed, all seven containers had handcuffs or manacles installed in their floors and ceilings.
Dutch police chief Jannine van den Berg confirmed the units were unearthed after French and Dutch police smashed the Encrochat phone network.
The kidnappings of victims destined for the cells were said to have been planned with “great precision”, involving teams equipped with weapons, bulletproof vests and fake police clothes, vans and also stop signs.
Police said implements
BUSTED Police blast their way in found in the containers, which also included finger cuffs and masking tape, were used “to torture victims or, in any case, to put them under pressure”.
Andy Kraag, head of the Dutch police’s central investigations division, added: “Six [containers] served as prison cells in which people could have been tied up and one other container had the sole purpose of being a torture chamber.”
As a result of the phone network being smashed, police in the UK seized €60million in illegal cash along with two tons of illegal drugs and 77 firearms – including machine guns.
ANDY KRAAG ON GRIM USE OF CONTAINERS