The Public Prosecution Service on Monday demanded up to nine years in prison against members of a courier network that moved almost 500 million euros in cash for criminals. Eight suspects are on trial this week at the Den Bosch court. They are said to have been led by 52-year-old Albanian Greek Thanas B. , who was extradited by Greece last year and is on trial in a separate case.

FBI
The investigation by the Underground Banking Task Force (TF-UB) started with chat messages from the communication platform ANOM, obtained from the American FBI. It showed that between June 2020 and March 2021, the group engaged in the collection and distribution of enormous amounts of cash on a daily basis; so-called picks & kicks. There appears to be a well-oiled network of couriers behind this who transfer bags full of cash in public places in the Netherlands. The suspects use 'tokens' characteristic of underground banking as proof of payment. In total, more than 246,130,620 euros were raised (picked) and an amount of 247,830,600 euros was given away (kicked) in eight months.

'The Hague office' and 'Amsterdam office'
The organization had two locations serving different areas; 'The Hague office' and 'Amsterdam office'. In reality, warehouses in which criminal money was counted and redistributed. The Hague office turns out to be a warehouse in Wateringen that was even robbed. During a search, the police found several hidden spaces and a money counting machine.