Four helpers of a Groningen drug network faced the court in Groningen on Tuesday, three years after the network’s main figures had stood trial.[1] A 33-year-old defendant did not appear, was reported to be in Spain and unreachable, and prosecutors demanded two years of unconditional imprisonment against him in absentia.[1] The other three defendants, aged 28, 35 and 41 and from Groningen and Wolvega, appeared after a one-year delay under plea deals in which they accept the demanded punishment in exchange for confessions and waiving appeal.[1] Prosecutors asked 180 hours of community service for the woman in a subordinate role who drove drugs from Amsterdam to Veendam in a specially prepared car and smuggled a small amount of soft drugs to Norway.[1] For a second defendant described as more important, prosecutors sought two years in prison with half suspended plus 192,000 euros in repayment.[1] The third defendant accepted 100 hours of community service and six months suspended under the prosecution deal.[1]
The network imported almost 800 kilos of weed (wiet) and 108 kilos of hashish (hasj) from Spain in March 2020.[1] It also smuggled large quantities of cocaine, amphetamine and ecstasy to Norway, Spain and Germany, with the trio on trial acting as couriers and contacts.[1] They were caught after investigators hacked the encrypted messaging service EncroChat in 2020, in chats where one of them had even listed his own coffeeshop, a licensed cannabis outlet, as the delivery address.[1]
The court is not a party to the plea deals but reviews them and can impose a higher sentence than agreed.[1] The second defendant said he could never repay such an amount in his life, saying he earned at most 1,500 euros and acted as an accomplice rather than an owner of the drugs.[1]
