“Traders will surely notice something here”

Boxes piled up to the ceiling, hidden in an old NATO bunker or barn. It is surrounded on the outside by tall bales of straw, so that from a distance it is not seen that the crates are full of illegal fireworks.

In recent months, police have taken around 350,000 kilos just across the border in Germany illegal fireworks confiscated. Most were probably destined for the Dutch market. The three main suspects come from Nieuwegein. According to the police, these are people “in the highest segment of the criminal fireworks trade”.

It’s hard to say how big the impact of the catch on the illegal fireworks trade is. The police speak of “a hard blow” and hope that this will make “Dutch roads a little safer”. Criminals use illegal cobras, mortars and nitrates in bomb attacks and attacks, police say. And even towards the end of the year there is a lot to do.

That 350,000 pounds is a big deal, 20-year-old Justin (not his real name) also says in a conversation with the NOS. For a few years he has made thousands of euros trading illegal fireworks. “With the large amount that has been packed now, traders will definitely notice something. It will be much harder to get fireworks this season.”

The police distributed these images of the sheds where the illegal fireworks were stacked:

Justin recently stopped trading illegal fireworks, saying he’s now of age, which means the penalties are much higher. For example, during his time in the world, he sold his craft to high school students.

Even those cobras and nitrates usually ended up with Justin through Germany. Especially in the border region, according to the former trader, several warehouses are full of illegal fireworks. “The Dutch get their trade from Germany because the rules are much less strict, just like the controls.”

Our eastern neighbors also have more space, Justin explains. “The area is much larger. Such a bunker can, for example, stand in the middle of a forest, without people noticing or being bothered by trucks coming in and out.” The penalties for traffickers caught in Germany are also lower than in the Netherlands. From the sheds, the fireworks usually cross the border in smaller vans.

That some of those sheds and bunkers have now been discovered by the police is bad news for traders, Justin thinks. “A small trader quickly sells between four hundred and five hundred kilos of illegal fireworks in a season. With this catch you quickly have seven hundred to a thousand traders who have lost their cargo and have to look for it elsewhere.”

Plus, illegal fireworks have been “incredibly expensive” in recent years, he explains. “This further increases the price and especially the scarcity in some municipalities”.

Incidentally, this is exactly what the police are hoping to achieve with the actions, says Erik Kooijker of the National Unity. “We think we have one of the biggest networks here. Many of these fireworks would be detonated towards the end of the year, but they are also illegally bought by football thugs, for example.”

According to former trader Justin, how much money traders lose due to police capture depends on the fireworks that were in the warehouses. “With a box of Cobra weighing around 25 kilos, a trader easily earns 600 euros, while a box of fireworks with illegal decorative pots produces only 150 euros.”

Much of the illegal fireworks that end up in the Netherlands are produced in Italy and various Eastern Bloc countries. The path followed by Cobras, nitrates and mortars can be seen in this video from NOS Stories: