Holland to spend €500m annually to fight descent into a ‘narco state’

Murders, corruption, and ‘Mocro Maffia’ prompts the Dutch government to set up a war chest to tackle the wave of organised crime sweeping the nation

Members of the public pay their respect at a farewell event for crime reporter Peter R de Vries in Amsterdam last year. The investigative journalist, who had been involved in a court case against one of the country’s most wanted drug barons, was shot at least five times. Picture: Getty Images

Journalists and lawyers under protection or murdered on the streets; court hearings guarded by the army; witness statements anonymised, and billions in dirty drug money that leaches through society, corrupting as it goes.

This is the Netherlands, where these facts have now inspired a crackdown pitting some €500m a year against a level of organised crime that politicians fear is increasingly “undermining” public order.