Coffeeshop charged with organised crime faces trial
By The Holland Times Tuesday 03 November 2009, 10:11
The trial into a controversial Zeeland coffeeshop has begun in Middleburg. The coffeeshop has been charged with involvement in organised crime.
According to the Public Prosecution Office (OM) Coffeeshop Checkpoint in Terneuzen is the first coffeeshop in the Netherlands to ever be charged with such an offence.
The 58-year old owner of the coffeeshop, its manager, a staff member, a large number of suppliers and marijuana growers are now facing trial in a Middleburg court accused of involvement in a criminal organisation.
The lawsuit could have serious consequences for other major coffee shops in the Netherlands. At the heart of the trial is that Dutch coffeeshops are only allowed a maximum trading stock of 500 grams of cannabis at any particular time. Coffeeshop customers are each allowed to purchase up to 5 grams.
Checkpoint was - until its closure in May 2008 - the biggest coffeeshop in the Netherlands. Its modern building on Terneuzen's Scheldt Boulevard attracted two-to three thousand customers per day, mainly from Belgium and France. The shop comprised five service counters, and waiting times were often as long as three hours.
The massive amount of drugs sold to tourists in the Terneuzen coffeeshop is estimated to be at least ten kilos of marijuana and hashish per day. The OM says the investigation into Checkpoint began because "evidence suggested that the maximum allowable trading stock was being systematically violated." The coffeeshop was first raided in mid 2007 with dozens of kilos of cannabis seized. "When they reopened two days later, they were quickly serving two-to-three thousand customers per day," said a spokesman from the OM.
Checkpoint was again raided in May 2008. The OM says that both raids combined yielded over 200 kilograms of soft drugs. The Checkpoint case led to a nationwide debate over coffeeshops which serve mainly foreign drug tourists. The government now wants to return to the original idea of small coffeeshops for local customers only.
Lawyers representing both sides say the case - which will last for the next eight days - will be a landmark test to see how far the OM can prosecute coffeeshops over the excessive sale of soft drugs.
