Netherlands: Is it becoming a narco-state?
Organized crime is taking over the Netherlands, said Tobias den Hartog in Algemeen Dagblad. Derk Wiersum, the lawyer for a gang member who turned crown witness in a five-victim murder case, was shot dead outside his Amsterdam home in a professional hit last week. A young man in a hoodie, the suspected assassin, was seen fleeing the scene. Authorities blamed the 44-year-old’s murder on Ridouan Taghi, the Moroccan-born Dutch drug trafficker that Wiersum’s client turned against. The slaying of a lawyer, apparently just for doing his job, is unprecedented in the Netherlands. Lawyers and judges here “usually move unguarded through life.” This is a country where even the prime minister “cycles to work on the same route every morning, buying his cappuccino at the same kiosk.” But legal representatives are no longer safe. It’s clear that “there is a narcostate” operating here “that the government cannot control.”
The Netherlands has become the cocaine hub of Europe, said Tom-Jan Meeus in NRC Handelsblad. Under our relaxed drug policy, licensed shops are allowed to sell small amounts of marijuana. Production of the drug is illegal, and so Moroccan gangs smuggle weed into the country. Those gangs have steadily expanded their empires and now supply not just marijuana but also much of the ecstasy and cocaine consumed in Europe. Experts say that at least 200,000 kilos of cocaine worth upward of $5.5 billion arrive in the Netherlands each year. That kind of money can buy anything: “not just expensive cars and beautiful mansions but also assassins and corrupt officials.” Cops now want the government to create a Dutch version of the American FBI, said Leroy van den Berg in WNL.tv. “We need a group that specializes in rolling up this type of crime and has the resources for it,” says Jan Struijs, chair of the Dutch Police Association. Other experts, though, argue we need to stop teenage hoodlums from becoming criminals in the first place—for example by funding community centers in immigrant areas.
Let’s be frank: The narco-gangsters aren’t ethnic Dutch, said Philip van Tijn in Elsevier Weekblad. They are Moroccans. Ridouan Taghi came to this country as a toddler in 1980 and joined the Bad Boys street gang before working his way up to fronting a murderous cocaine syndicate. He is now believed to be running his criminal enterprise from Dubai, or possibly Colombia or Mexico. The Dutch have been far too timid about actively policing such people, because of fears of “ethnic profiling” or racism. It’s beyond time to get tough.
We can’t only blame the traffickers for our lawless predicament, said Trouw in an editorial. Drug users here and across Europe need to realize that “behind every pill, line, or joint is a whole chain of brutal drug crime.” And it isn’t just gang members being threatened and killed, but attorneys and journalists. If you want this country to maintain the rule of law, obey the law yourself.