The Dutch and German police staged a mega evening fireworks display on Tuesday. In a bunker complex about 20 kilometers over the German border near Enschede, they found no less than 250,000 kilos of fireworks. It would be intended for illegal sale to Dutch private individuals. Two people have been arrested.
The two people arrested are Dutch who had stored their fireworks in the bunker complex. Both people are suspects in a large fireworks investigation that police launched last year.
According to the police, these are heavy fireworks that are prohibited for Dutch consumers. The suspects offered these fireworks via a website, after which buyers could pick them up from fireworks shops just across the border in Germany.
The suspects posed as professional fireworks dealers legally reselling fireworks to legal buyers. “You can think of companies that organize firework displays, for example,” a police spokesman told NU.nl.
The suspects used legal businesses for illegal trade
But the suspects sold in the illegal circuit, police investigations have shown. For example, they abused the Chamber of Commerce registrations for their trade to pretend the trade was legal. “You have to think about people who use their barbershop to sell fireworks, for example. This is obviously not allowed,” explains the police spokesman.
Police seized the suspects’ store supplies on Tuesday morning. Police are also searching suspects in The Hague, Enschede and Haaksbergen. In addition, searches are underway in seven other locations in Germany. It concerns four fireworks shops, an assembly point and two business addresses of the suspects’ companies.
Tuesday’s action was part of a large-scale investigation police launched a year ago with the Public Prosecutor (OM) after an anonymous tip. The police and prosecutors cooperated with the German police, the judiciary, the Inspectorate for the Environment and Transport (ILT), customs and the European police service Europol.
Police are not ruling out further arrests, even if the main suspects have been caught, according to the spokesman. The police will recover the fireworks that have already been exchanged in the near future. Arrests can still be made.
Investigation leads police to ‘height of illegal fireworks trade’
Tuesday’s catch is huge. Police found more fireworks in the action than in all of 2021. Then they seized just under 206,000 kilograms of fireworks.
And other mega catches are made. In November a record amount of 350,000 kilos of illegal fireworks was seized. The investigation leading up to that capture is completely separate from Tuesday’s action.
According to the spokesman, the mega catches are the result of large-scale police investigations that have led to the escalating illegal fireworks trade. “This is certainly a development of recent years,” says the spokesperson.
