Dec 29, 2019 05:35 PM
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50821542
EXCERPT: . . . a series of incidents as evidence of the escalating brutality: Two young boys killed in Kalashnikov shootout with bullets ricocheting off walls. A mother murdered in front of her children. A severed head outside a coffee shop. The murder of a crown witness's brother, Reduan B. The murder of lawyer Derk Wiersum. [...] "Sure we're not Mexico. We don't have 14,400 murders. But if you look at the infrastructure, the big money earned by organised crime, the parallel economy. Yes, we have a narco-state."
[...] The deadly shooting of Derk Wiersum destroyed a common misconception here: that drug cartels only kill their own. A 44-year-old father of two, he was shot dead in front of his wife outside their home in Amsterdam in September. [...] The shooting in broad daylight in quiet suburbia was seen as an attack on civil society, democracy and the rule of law.
What is the 'Mocro Mafia'? "It's street slang. Young Moroccans call each other 'Mocro'" [..] But it's not only Moroccans. It's about young boys growing up in areas of Amsterdam where tourists never go. "It's not canals, the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh. It's the housing estates. They don't have the same opportunities. They are aspirational, they are looking for a career in the underworld."
[...] The Netherlands has in a sense created the perfect environment for the drugs trade to flourish. With its extensive transport network, its lenient drug laws and penalties, and its proximity to a number of lucrative markets, it is an obvious hub for the global narcotics flow. ... "There are clans from all over the world, because the Netherlands is one of the most important transit ports. They know whoever controls the Netherlands has one of the arteries of the global drug market," [Roberto Saviano] told the Volkskrant newspaper.
Billions and billions of euros are earned on the black market. Synthetic drugs with a street value of €18.9bn (£16bn; $22bn) were produced in the Netherlands in 2017. Soft drugs have been imported from Colombia and North Africa for 30 years. Today a significant portion of synthetic drugs - MDMA, LSD, amphetamines, GHB and crystal meth - are produced in the Netherlands. In fact the country is considered a world leader.
Police union chief Jan Struijs highlights the speed at which these drugs are transported around the globe. "On the day Donald Trump became president, the first distinctive orange 'Trumpies' ecstasy tablets were found in Schiphol; 24 hours later they were on sale in Australia. "There are a lot of Mexicans helping to produce crystal meth in the Netherlands. You see a cocaine dump in Venezuela and Suriname, you see very low prices in Amsterdam, Liverpool and Manchester. Every gram you buy goes to organised crime and to funding these drug cartels."
South American drug lords started by shipping to West Africa. The drugs then went north over old smuggling lines from Morocco, and young Moroccans whose parents had moved to the Netherlands still had family connections and migration routes to tap into. [...] While ringleaders often operate internationally, police fear they are able to use domestic influence to control contract killers who are becoming increasingly younger...
[...] "We don't have bodies dangling from bridges," argues Wouter Laumans, "but we do have corruption in the docks, violence against lawyers, threats to journalists. It definitely has some of the characteristics of a narco-state lite." [...] The Dutch economy may not be dependent or defined by the drugs industry, but that industry is exerting increasing influence on society.... (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: . . . a series of incidents as evidence of the escalating brutality: Two young boys killed in Kalashnikov shootout with bullets ricocheting off walls. A mother murdered in front of her children. A severed head outside a coffee shop. The murder of a crown witness's brother, Reduan B. The murder of lawyer Derk Wiersum. [...] "Sure we're not Mexico. We don't have 14,400 murders. But if you look at the infrastructure, the big money earned by organised crime, the parallel economy. Yes, we have a narco-state."
[...] The deadly shooting of Derk Wiersum destroyed a common misconception here: that drug cartels only kill their own. A 44-year-old father of two, he was shot dead in front of his wife outside their home in Amsterdam in September. [...] The shooting in broad daylight in quiet suburbia was seen as an attack on civil society, democracy and the rule of law.
What is the 'Mocro Mafia'? "It's street slang. Young Moroccans call each other 'Mocro'" [..] But it's not only Moroccans. It's about young boys growing up in areas of Amsterdam where tourists never go. "It's not canals, the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh. It's the housing estates. They don't have the same opportunities. They are aspirational, they are looking for a career in the underworld."
[...] The Netherlands has in a sense created the perfect environment for the drugs trade to flourish. With its extensive transport network, its lenient drug laws and penalties, and its proximity to a number of lucrative markets, it is an obvious hub for the global narcotics flow. ... "There are clans from all over the world, because the Netherlands is one of the most important transit ports. They know whoever controls the Netherlands has one of the arteries of the global drug market," [Roberto Saviano] told the Volkskrant newspaper.
Billions and billions of euros are earned on the black market. Synthetic drugs with a street value of €18.9bn (£16bn; $22bn) were produced in the Netherlands in 2017. Soft drugs have been imported from Colombia and North Africa for 30 years. Today a significant portion of synthetic drugs - MDMA, LSD, amphetamines, GHB and crystal meth - are produced in the Netherlands. In fact the country is considered a world leader.
Police union chief Jan Struijs highlights the speed at which these drugs are transported around the globe. "On the day Donald Trump became president, the first distinctive orange 'Trumpies' ecstasy tablets were found in Schiphol; 24 hours later they were on sale in Australia. "There are a lot of Mexicans helping to produce crystal meth in the Netherlands. You see a cocaine dump in Venezuela and Suriname, you see very low prices in Amsterdam, Liverpool and Manchester. Every gram you buy goes to organised crime and to funding these drug cartels."
South American drug lords started by shipping to West Africa. The drugs then went north over old smuggling lines from Morocco, and young Moroccans whose parents had moved to the Netherlands still had family connections and migration routes to tap into. [...] While ringleaders often operate internationally, police fear they are able to use domestic influence to control contract killers who are becoming increasingly younger...
[...] "We don't have bodies dangling from bridges," argues Wouter Laumans, "but we do have corruption in the docks, violence against lawyers, threats to journalists. It definitely has some of the characteristics of a narco-state lite." [...] The Dutch economy may not be dependent or defined by the drugs industry, but that industry is exerting increasing influence on society.... (MORE - details)