(Photo: ANP)The owner of a coffeeshop in the Netherlands has been jailed for 16 weeks and fined a massive €10million after a court found him and other staff guilty of keeping too much cannabis on the premises.
Under Dutch 'tolerance' rules, coffeeshops must keep their stock below 500g (18oz) at any given time, regardless of how much cannabis they might sell in a day. This typically necessitates frequent 're-ups' throughout the day if a shop is doing brisk business.
It seems Meddie Willemsen flouted this arrangement; police busted the coffeeshop with 200kg of dope on two occasions. Willemsen and his fellow staff were convicted of exporting drugs and membership of a criminal organization as well as hosting too much cannabis at the shop. The coffeeshop, 'Checkpoint', was located close to the Belgian border and reputedly served up to 3000 customers per day.
The prosecutor in charge of the case summed up the reasons for the case like this:
"In short, a well-oiled machinery was ready at the back door to sell the largest possible quantity of drugs. Many dozens of kilograms a day. Each member of the team had a separate role to play. The team included a purchasing department, a transport department and a processing department. We regard that as a criminal organisation, because crimes were committed. The volume of drugs being sold there was absurd, annual turnover was nearly 30 million euros."
In the Netherlands, small scale dealing of cannabis in licensed coffeeshops is permitted. However, when businesses get too greedy, or take on an international perspective (deliberately targeting customers from outside Holland's borders), they risk incurring the wrath of the authorities, which is what happened to Checkpoint.
Read more at Radio Netherlands Worldwide
No comments:
Post a Comment