Seven young people were arrested on the Rotterdam Maasvlakte in the night between Sunday and Monday, probably because they wanted to take drugs from containers. Five suspects are between seventeen and twenty years old.
The so-called mountaineers were arrested after two different charges. Shortly after 1:00 am, security guards reported seeing people in the port area. This led to the arrest of two suspects: a 19-year-old from Zwijndrecht and a 20-year-old from Rotterdam.
At 5:50, five more suspects were arrested after a complaint. It concerned three young men from Almere aged seventeen, eighteen and nineteen. A 28-year-old resident of The Hague and a 23-year-old with no permanent residence were also arrested. They are all still blocked.
Criminal organizations often use so-called extortionists. They bypass the entrance gates to break open containers at the port site and remove the drugs.
Until 1 January 2022, climbers could be fined 90 euros for unauthorized presence on the port site. Now they can go up to a year in prison.
