AMSTERDAM: With New Year’s eve approaching, the police are once again discovering large amounts of smuggled fireworks all across the Netherlands. In the past month alone, the police have confiscated 3,403 kilograms of smuggled fireworks and arrested numerous suspects.
On September 30th the police found a total of 1,400 kilograms of fireworks in Vianen after responding to a report of a robbery at an office building on Eendrachtsweg. At the scene the police found three men with four cars. In one car they found a burglars tools. In a second car they found a box full of illegal fireworks and many more boxes filled with fireworks in the back of a van. Three men – a 27 year old from Vianen, a 24 year old from Nieuwegein and a 20 year old from Lelystad – were arrested on suspicion of possession and possible trafficking of illegal fireworks. The fireworks and cars were seized.
On October 6th the police found 83 kilograms of fireworks in a house on Calvariestraat in Tegelen after receiving a tip that they were there. The fireworks included 137 Cobra 6’s, 68 Cobra 7s and 26 Cobra 8’s. The resident of the hose was arrested and the fireworks were seized and destroyed.
On October 19th a total of 490 kilograms of illegal fireworks were found in Breda. The police checked two cars on the A27 near Raamsdonksveer after noticing the two drivers acting oddly in a parking lot. In one car officers found 40 kilograms of illegal fireworks. The driver, a 44 year old, was arrested on suspicion of fireworks trafficking. The driver of the other car, a 24 year old man, was arrested because the police believe he wanted to buy the fireworks. When searching the older man’s house on Bisonstraat, the police found another 450 kilograms of fireworks.
On October 21st the police arrested a 70 year old man from Groningen in Budel after finding about 46 thousand nitrates, weighing in at 700 kilograms, in his car. The fireworks were confiscated and will be destroyed after further investigation.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, October 27th and 28th, the police found a total of 730 kilograms of “very dangerous and some homemade” fireworks at three addresses in Spijkernisse. Two men, aged 28 and 29, and a 50 year old woman were arrested.
