Mathijs Oomen was unable to sleep last night. “I kept thinking, the police will be here immediately and I will be lifted from my bed”. 33-year-old Oomen has to swallow. A drug lab for the production of cocaine was found in a warehouse of the Steenberg entrepreneur on Thursday.
The warehouse on the Boonhil has now been completely emptied. All equipment was loaded into two large trucks, which drove off Friday morning. What remains is the stench “There is a very strong chemical air inside,” says Mathijs.
“Customs called on Thursday that they wanted to look in my warehouse. I was not there myself, I called my wife for the key.” They found a drug laboratory in the warehouse. Ten suspects were arrested, men from Colombia.
Oomen was terrified. “I heard they were actually looking for an illegal cigarette factory, but the police won’t say anything to me.”
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The shed is one of four sheds at Oomen’s house. He currently lives in one of them, because his house is being renovated. The three others are rented out. The warehouse with the drug lab had a new tenant for three weeks. Mathijs says he hadn’t noticed anything. “Coincidentally, I haven’t been there for the past three weeks as we were staying at friends’ house. We babysat their dog.”
Oomen has a contracting company and an arable farm, including seed potatoes. He’s worried his clients might think he has something to do with the drug lab. “But I really didn’t know.”
Normally he says that he regularly checks the rented sheds. “I hadn’t gotten around to that yet. They had only been in it for a few weeks.” Oomen thinks that is why there was not really production yet. The other three sheds were also checked by the police. “But luckily nothing was found there.”
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In the course of Friday afternoon, the last police officers also leave the Oomen site. They leave the owner behind. He has not been interrogated: “I am not a suspect. If they have any questions, they’ll get in touch, they said.” The police confirm to Omroep Brabant that Oomen is not in the picture as a suspect.
Oom hopes they’ll stop by soon if they have any questions. He wants to be able to draw a line under it. You can see the tension in him. “I want it to be over.”
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