The police executed several raids in the Eindhoven region on Tuesday.
These were made possible, in part, because the police were reading encrypted messages between the criminals over a long time. That’s according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in an explanation of the raids.
The police raided sites in Eindhoven, Geldrop, Veldhoven, and Nuenen on Tuesday morning. They arrested four men and one woman. A total of 330 members of the police, tax authorities, defence, and customs carried out searches.
Multi-country raids
The authorities pulled off these raids at 19 locations. And not only in the Netherlands. There were operations in Belgium, Germany, and France too.
The criminal organisation presumably used several companies. These were in the Netherlands and abroad. These businesses would conceal money in bank accounts.
They would then invest and move the money. The launderers then transferred the money in different, intermediate stages via the United Arab Emirates. It went to Dubai and African countries such as the Central African Republic. In Africa, the money was invested in investments, projects, gold, and diamonds.
Since 2017
The investigation has been ongoing since 2017. Many of the cases involved two mean from Geldrop and Veldhoven. They were said to be involved in the laundering of money, apparently earned from drug trafficking.
In the course of the investigation, two other men from Nuenen and Geldrop and a woman from Echt-Susteren also entered the picture. These are the people the police arrested on Tuesday. The justice department expects more arrests to follow.
Source: Studio040
Translator: Bob
Editor: Melinda Walraven
