Increase in Dutch drug labs across the Belgian and German borders
May 7, 2021

The Belgian and German police are increasingly seeing Dutch drug labs in the border area. Due to the lack of cooperation between the police forces on both sides of the border, drug criminals reduce their chances of being caught. This has emerged from research by KRO-NCRV's Pointer platform.

In Belgium, a total of 28 drug labs were dismantled in 2020, a third more than in 2019. The majority has a link with Dutch drug criminals, says Marc Vancoillie, commissioner at the Belgian federal police.

In the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, close to the Dutch border, three drug labs have been dismantled in recent years. An analysis of the raw materials found there, trace research and Dutch vehicles found there shows that the perpetrators come from the Netherlands. Germany also sees mainly Dutch involvement in drug dumping in nature.

According to Vancoillie, Dutch drug criminals are more often moving to Germany and Belgium to stay under the radar. 'They are not known in Belgium, here they can just walk down the street. Conversely, we cannot just get into the car and take actions in the Netherlands.'

Experts point out that police forces' cooperation between the three countries is not going smoothly. German police commissioner Andreas Heisig argues for better cooperation: 'Differences in the legal system time and again lead to difficulties with communication, because the German police makes requests for information while the Dutch police classifies such a case as unimportant. And the suspects know that. '

In January 2019, three people in their twenties from Brabant were found dead in a drug lab in Hechtel-Eksel (photo), just across the Dutch-Belgian border. They perished from the toxic fumes. Police arrested two men a few months later on suspicion of involvement in the lab.