Organised crime eludes police despite crackdown

Despite a crackdown on cannabis growers Dutch authorities have failed to get to the organised crime behind them, investigators say.

Police have closed down many illegal cannabis plantations, but they hardly ever investigate who is making money from them. That is the conclusion of an investigation by the Brabant detective force into organised crime in the cannabis trade in six police regions in the south of the Netherlands.

The result are confirmed by public prosecutor Gerrit van de Burg in Den Bosch, who heads the national task force for the fight against cannabis plantations.

In 2004, the Dutch government announced a crackdown on organised crime in the cannabis cultivation sector. It was to be a concerted effort by police, local authorities, housing associations and energy companies.

But according to detective Stephan van Nimwegen, who headed the investigation, police departments still give cannabis plantations low priority compared with murder, robbery or hard drugs investigations.

Van Nimwegen said closing down cannabis plantations was "fighting the symptoms".

The new government policy was supposed to give a new impulse to the fight against illegal cannabis cultivation. But recently the drug policy advisory board came to the conclusion that as far as cannabis growing is concerned "organised crime is faced by an unorganised state authority".

According to public prosecutor Van der Burg police and prosecutors simply don't have enough manpower to seriously investigate organised crime behind cannabis cultivation. "The prosecutor's office in Den Bosch can afford to open at most three investigations into large criminal gangs involved with cannabis growing," he said. It is estimated that at least ten major criminal gangs operate in the south.

Meanwhile, it is the home growers who are impacted the most by the government policy. And these are mostly vulnerable and relatively innocent people, said Van Nimwegen, who end up losing their homes and benefits and owing large sums to the tax collector and the energy companies.