Small country, big player The Netherlands and synthetic drugs over the past 50 years Small country, big player The Netherlands and synthetic drugs over the past 50 years Pieter Tops Judith van Valkenhoef Edward van der Torre Luuk van Spijk Politieacademie Apeldoorn 2019 Contents 1 Introduction 6 1.1 Central questions 7 1.2 Perspective 8 1.3 Structure of the document 9 2 A synthetic drugs network in action 11 2.1 The network’s working method 11 2.2 The preparations: chemicals, hardware and locations 16 2.3 The production 20 2.4 The aftermath: cleaning up and distribution 23 3 The unprecedented scope of the world of synthetic drugs 27 3.1 Limited information 28 3.2 What is available? 30 3.3 Early-stage seizures 31 3.4 Seizure rate 33 3.5 The wholesale turnover 35 3.6 Trade Proceeds 36 3.7 Share of Dutch criminals 39 3.8 Conclusion 40 4 A brief history of ecstasy and amphetamine in the Netherlands 42 4.1 ‘The King of Speed’: the emergence of amphetamine 42 4.2 Can you feel it?!: the emergence of ecstasy 44 4.3 The Netherlands as a source country 47 4.4 Intensifying the action 49 4.5 Meanwhile in synthetic drugs circles 58 4.6 The Netherlands Police: further fragmentation 60 4.7 Conclusion 63 5 The original Brabant-Limburg synthetic drugs criminals 65 5.1 From brute force to synthetic drugs 65 5.2 From small-time criminals to top criminals 70 5.3 Conclusion 81 Small country, Big Player 4 Contents 6 The national and international arenas 82 6.1 The United Nations conventions 83 6.2 The EU precursor regulations 85 6.3 Three arenas 89 6.4 The relationship with China 93 6.5 Complexity 98 6.6 Conclusion: a double battle 100 7 The top X and beyond 101 7.1 A top 35 101 7.2 Why does a Brabant-Limburg top 35 emerge? 103 7.3 Beyond the top X 109 7.4 Conclusion 114 8 Barriers and criminal innovation 115 8.1 The barrier model 115 8.2 PMK: substitute raw materials 117 8.3 BMK: substitute raw materials 118 8.4 The disillusion: criminal innovation 120 8.5 Break with the established system 128 8.6 Conclusion 129 9 Organized anarchy 131 9.1 ‘Lack of organization’ as strength 131 9.2 An eye-opener: the Party King 133 9.3 The situation as described by a criminal 136 9.4 Conclusion 140 10 Criminal flows 141 10.1 Raw materials and chemicals 141 10.2 The production process 144 10.3 Transport and smuggling 153 10.4 Financial flows 156 10.5 Conclusion 160 11 Violence 161 11.1 Why synthetic drugs violence remained limited for a long time 161 11.2 Violence as a public problem 168 11.3 Conclusion 172 Small country, Big Player 5 Contents 12 Ecstasy and other psychostimulants: effects, risks and use 173 12.1 Ecstasy and the dance culture 173 12.2 Monitoring the drugs market in the Netherlands 174 12.3 Effects and risks of psychostimulants 176 12.4 Use and developments of psychostimulants in the Netherlands 182 12.5 Acute incidents with psychostimulants 188 12.6 Conclusion 192 13 Concluding observations: a painful balance 194 13.1 The scope 194 13.2 The system 200 13.3 The approach 202 13.4 Conclusion: why the Netherlands? 206 The twelve most important findings 210 Appendix 1 Notes on the search for the unprecedented scope of the world of synthetic drugs 213 Appendix 2 Overview of synthetic drugs seized in the Netherlands in 2017 227 List of abbreviations 244 Literature and documents 246 Conversations overview 251 Supervisory committee 253 About the authors 254 Small country, Big Player Introduction1 1 International studies have shown that the Netherlands has a questionable reputation as a source country of synthetic drugs. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), for instance, reports that criminal groups from the Netherlands and Belgium are the main producers and traffickers in the field of synthetic drugs in Europe (2016, p.126). Produc- tion of amphetamine (speed) in Europe mainly takes place in Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland, while MDMA (ecstasy) production is concentrated in Belgium and the Netherlands (EMCDDA, 2017, p. 29-31). In addition, much of the production in Belgium and Poland takes place under the direction or supervision of Dutch nationals (crime-as-a-service). Other international reports present a similar picture. Europol’s 2017 Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) mentions the Netherlands as: – main producer of MDMA and amphetamine, together with Belgium; – main producer of and distribution hub for cannabis; – main entry point for cocaine in the EU, together with Belgium and Spain; – main entry point and distribution hub for heroin. In other words, the Netherlands is not just a worldwide leader in the produc- tion of MDMA and amphetamine, but is also the hub where various other drugs flows come together. This is why the Netherlands can be considered the main European logistical hub for cross-border drugs trafficking. The charts appended to the SOCTA report clearly illustrate the Netherlands’ pivotal role. More than ever, this message appears to sink in in the Netherlands. At the International Drugs Enforcement Conference (IDEC) held in the Netherlands in 2018, which is a joint project of the US Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Netherlands Police, F. Grapperhaus, Minister of Justice and Security, stated in his opening speech that he was fully aware of the embarrassing Dutch position in the international list of drugs producing countries. As far as we know, no other minister or state secretary has ever made such a statement. 1 This report was published at the same time as an abbreviated analysis. This analysis, The Netherlands and synthetic drugs: an inconvenient truth, is based on the underlying report, but can be read independently, and includes an interpretation of the facts. To be found at www.politieacademie.nl/syntheticdrugs. Small country, Big Player 7 Introduction Figure 1.1 Clockwise, starting from the top left: SOCTA charts indicating the prominent role of the Netherlands in synthetic drugs, cannabis, heroin and cocaine, respectively (source: Europol, 2017, slightly edited). Main producers Export / Main destinations Amphetamine SYNTHETIC DRUGS AND CANNABIS HERB NEW PSYCHOACTIVE MDMA SUBSTANCES distribution NETHERLANDS Main distribution hub CZECH REP. NETHERLANDS Distribution hub POLAND BELGIUM to UNITED STATES to AUSTRALto AUSTRALIA IA ALBANIA Main source SOURCE: EMCDDA & EUROPOL EU DRUG MARKETS REPORT 2016 SOURCE: EMCDDA & EUROPOL EU DRUG MARKETS REPORT 2016 NOR COCAINE Main entry points in the EU THERN ROUTE HEROIN distribution NETHERLANDS distribution CAUCASUS ROUTE BELGIUM SPAIN AFGHANISTAN BALKAN ROUTE Main producer PAKISTAN Main producer COLOMBIA 2016 T R O EP R SOUTHERN ROUTE S T E RK MA PERU G U R D U E L O Main producers BOLIVIA P O R EU & A D D C EM : E C R U O SOURCE: EMCDDA & EUROPOL EU DRUG MARKETS REPORT 2016 S 1.1 Central questions In this report we focus on synthetic drugs, with an emphasis on ampheta- mine and MDMA (ecstasy), but we also pay attention to New Psychoactive Substances (NPS). It is based on three central question: 1. What is a plausible and credible estimate of the minimum scope of synthetic drugs production and trafficking in the Netherlands, both in terms of persons involved and financial turnover? Small country, Big Player 8 Introduction 2. How does the synthetic drugs system operate:2 who does what, what raw materials are required, where do they come from, what are the mutual rela- tionships in criminal circles, and what developments have been identified? What is the international dimension of the system? 3. What do we know about the effectiveness of the approach to and fight against the phenomenon? What appears to work, what doesn’t? In the course of the study, a new question came to the fore: how can it be that since the 1980s, the Netherlands has been playing such a prominent role in the worldwide production of synthetic drugs? The world of synthetic drugs has local and international aspects. Take, for instance, the production of synthetic drugs, for which the raw materials are shipped in from all over the world, particularly the precursors BMK and PMK and their preprecursors, mainly originate in China and Southeast Asia. Or the final product – the pills and sometimes powders or crystals – shipped to coun- tries all over the world, within Europe mainly to Scandinavia, Spain and Great Britain, but also to Australia, Turkey, Southeast Asia and the United States of America. The Netherlands is often the place where the various flows meet. At first sight, this is a logistically cumbersome and complex process in which many things can go wrong. And things do indeed go wrong in the sense that raw materials or final products are sometimes intercepted, but apparently pro- duction in the Netherlands and Belgium is still lucrative. There are reasons for this, and for the long-standing prominent position of the Netherlands; both key elements in our analysis. 1.2 Perspective This report was written from an investigative point of view, with the devel- opment of enforcement and investigation with respect to synthetic drugs in the Netherlands as central perspective. Of course there are other perspectives that we will describe: a health perspective – the influence of synthetic drugs on public health – an economic perspective – what is the effect of synthetic drugs and the fight against them on the legal economy – and a diplomatic perspective – the consequences of synthetic drugs for the international posi- tion and the international reputation of the Netherlands.