Criminals want to lure farmers to rent barns for drug production

More than one in ten farmers in the nine northern provinces have been approached by criminals in recent years and asked to rent a barn or stable. Almost a third have seen evidence of drug-related crime in their area. And half of agricultural entrepreneurs see crime in rural areas as a growing problem, reports AD based on a survey by the regional agricultural organization LTO-Noord.

For a long time, drug criminals have mainly set up drug laboratories and cannabis plantations in the rural areas of North Brabant and Zeeland. However, the LTO Noord survey shows that the problem is spreading.

“All farmers must be vigilant and alert,” Gaby de Ruiter, a confidant at LTO-Noord and former police officer, told the newspaper AD. “Drug criminals have expanded their area of ​​operations to the northern provinces. No one should be so naive as to believe that this cannot happen to them.”

Marbel de Graaf, a farmer from Wieringerwerf and chairwoman of LTO-Noord in North Holland, was not immediately sure what was going on when a man approached her in May last year. “A dapper gentleman with a slight Italian accent appeared at the door,” she told AD. “He told me that he was organizing theater performances for children and was looking for a storage room for some pianos.”

“I actually feel a bit like an idiot. Because I even showed him everything,” she said. He didn't seem threatening or intimidating at all. But de Graaf became suspicious when she showed him the shed, and he seemed to have no problem with leaving pianos in the dusty, leaky room. “I finally asked him politely but firmly to leave.”

According to De Ruiter, many farmers have had much more confrontational experiences. “I also know of situations where four men drive onto the property in a Mercedes, get out and clearly signal what they want. Then you have to be very firm as a person and say 'no'.” She stresses that drug laboratories can be very dangerous. “The laboratories that are set up are not the safest places to work. They are often dirty, makeshift and have a recipe stuck to the boiler. And then you just hope that nothing explodes.”

Nevertheless, LTO Noord chairman De Graaf fears that financial problems could tempt farmers to agree. “There are enough livestock farmers in need. A proposal for quick money sounds tempting. But once you've said 'yes', you'll never get rid of it again.”

The police are currently going door-to-door in rural areas for prevention purposes. “We are pointing out the dangers of working with criminals,” a police spokesperson told AD. “The owner of a site where illegal activities take place is an accomplice and therefore liable to prosecution. In addition, he can be exposed to intimidation and violence if he no longer wants to participate in criminal activities.”