Rotterdam court clears tenant of drug lab where three died

The Rotterdam court acquitted Jalal O. (37) of all charges over the drug lab on the Schammenkamp, in the Zuidwijk district, where an explosion on 29 January 2024 killed three people. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had demanded seven years in prison.

The OM argued that O., the tenant of the unit, must have known about the lab and helped run it, and that he was responsible for the three deaths. The court found too little evidence for this. Two people were also injured, one of whom fell through the floor of the flat above into burning debris. The dead include O.'s 22-year-old nephew.

O. has always denied any part in it. He said he only used the front of the unit and had sublet the back, where the lab was, to his colleague Mustapha. The OM did not believe this.

After the blast, police found traces of cocaine and procaine, a cutting agent, two electronic scales and more than forty jerrycans of acetone. They also found jerrycans with hydrochloric acid residue. The OM said the lab made procaine to cut cocaine.

The OM has two weeks to lodge an appeal.