Prosecutors demand nine and seven years over three drug labs

At the district court in Zwolle, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) demanded nine years in prison for a 53-year-old man from Gramsbergen and seven years for a 70-year-old real estate entrepreneur from Zwolle. The case concerns drug labs in Nieuwlande (Drenthe) and in Bruchterveld and Brucht, in the municipality of Hardenberg, which police visited in 2023. The Brucht lab had already been cleaned out by then.

The OM also demanded fines of €60,000 and €80,000 for the two main suspects. It wants prison terms of four years and two and a half years for two cooks. For a fifth suspect, who installed the electricity, it asked for 240 hours of community service and a six-month suspended prison sentence.

According to the OM, all three properties were bought by the same Zwolle real estate company and rented almost immediately to the man from Gramsbergen. The OM says the large rents were barely paid, if at all. The Nieuwlande site was bought for about €700,000. The OM says there are enough indications that drugs were also made at Brucht.

The OM suspects the rental contracts raised the value of the properties on paper, so the company could borrow more money to buy new ones. It says the entrepreneur warned the tenant of impending inspections.

Cooks are replaceable, but a financier who shields the labs from checks is not.The prosecutor, in court

The prosecutor also said people were forced to work in Nieuwlande under threat of a firearm. According to the OM, a man was shot in the foot there.