The criminal court of first instance in Ieper convicted fifteen defendants of cultivating and possessing cannabis grown in the cellars beneath the pigsties of a farm in Staden, West Flanders.[1] In July 2023 police raided the farm, where the farming family had converted a cellar under the pigsties and a barn to grow cannabis plants between April 2021 and July 2023.[1] Seventeen defendants had to answer the charges in the case.[1]
The family played the central role: invoices for the structural conversion work were paid through the family’s companies, and other defendants advised, moved material from the Netherlands, did electrical work and trimmed the harvest.[2] The lead defendant, one of the family members, was sentenced to four years in prison, half suspended, a 24,000-euro fine, half suspended, and had 50,000 euros confiscated.[1] The second defendant received a 150-hour community service order, an 8,000-euro fine and 20,000 euros confiscation.[1] The third defendant received three years in prison, eighteen months suspended, an 8,000-euro fine and 30,000 euros confiscation.[1]
The ex-advocate Pol Vandemeulebroucke, ninth defendant, was given a 120-hour community service order and an 8,000-euro fine for bringing the farming family into contact with another defendant experienced in setting up cannabis plantations.[3] At the barbecue on the farm, Vandemeulebroucke and that defendant discussed the construction, cultivation and harvest of a cannabis plantation in great detail, the court found.[3] Other defendants received prison terms ranging from eight months to three years, partly suspended, along with fines of 8,000 to 24,000 euros, part suspended.[3]
The submitted HLN account presents this Eigen Kweek case, with Vandemeulebroucke among the convicted, as continuing on appeal.[4]
