The number of home-made high-explosives in the Netherlands has almost tripled in a year, the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) said on Tuesday. NRC. Last year, the police and the Public Prosecution Service (OM) presented 31 cases with bombs that criminals had manufactured themselves to the institute.
A “shocking increase”, says NFI director Marc Elsensohn. However, according to him, it fits in with the increase in serious crime and subversion in the Netherlands. “The explosives are mainly used by organized crime for threats, settlements and attacks,” Elsensohn said in the newspaper.
According to the director, the institute can no longer cope with the demand for research into explosives. The NFI conducts research into hand grenades, explosives and home-made explosives, and in all three categories the number of explosives investigations has increased significantly over the past five years. In total, the number of studies doubled to 107 in that period, writes NRC.
In the next five years, the NFI will be able to do less research for the police and the Public Prosecution Service due to financial shortages. In its own annual report, the NFI states that in 2020 it had a deficit of almost 3 million euros on a budget of 83 million euros. The institute expects to have an annual budget deficit of more than 4 million from 2022.
The shortage is partly caused by replacement of equipment and ICT. That is why from 2022 less work will be done for the police, the judiciary and the Public Prosecution Service.
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