Ex-drugscrimineel getuigt: "Ik verdiende vroeger 25.000 euro per uur"

This is where it happened. We left our car here. Like this. And then we threw them there, with the drums, into the canal. It was very deep there, so you couldn't find them again. In his previous life as a super criminal, Joop Gottmers dumped thousands of tons of chemical waste. There are some here, I think. We would just walk like this and then throw them like this... We would throw them. We were glad to get rid of that mess. It was also the case that no hair or fingerprints were allowed. So it was also a nuisance.

The laboratory, a laboratory... The biggest problem really is: how to dispose of the waste? That's where you run the most risks. Today, criminal drug laboratories are springing up like toadstools. The Netherlands and now also Belgium are global suppliers of synthetic drugs. Countless pill and powder factories on remote farms, hidden warehouses or rented garages. Very amateur or extremely professional. In the police laboratory in Rijswijk they couldn't even believe that we produced amphetamines with 98.3 percent purity in powder form. They could still do that... How do they do it in a lab like that? That's just... yeah. It's just years of experience.

During his difficult years, Gottmers helped put the Netherlands on the international drug map. Twenty years ago he was at the top of the drug scene. I'm here too, a little further away, letting myself be fooled by a man. He was Greek. Then they told me that he had defrauded me of 175,000

euro

s. A little further on you have a kind of channel, a ravine. We stripped him naked, put a gun in his mouth and threw him into the ravine. I was different. Gottmers has had several lives. Before he had anything to do with drugs, he was a boxer.

And not just any one. European Champion in the category up to 75 kilos. Later he also stood out in Thai boxing. Joop Gottmers is a Dutch Muay Thai champion. Walk. It is in that world of boxing where Gottmers was recruited by drug traffickers. He was a fighting machine that everyone was amazed by and also popular. Ideal. Then you only see the charms of drug trafficking. Nice cars, women, lots of money, drugs, champagne... I've had it all. But there was also another side to the issue. My best friend. I took his brains out of the wall. I have put a gun in people's mouths.

I have seen terrible things in that world. Yes, it has a dark side. The first time I received almost sixteen years in prison and then I received another almost twelve years in prison. Fortunately, I spent only four years in prison. And over time he became very addicted to drugs. So I've also seen the other side of that world. In his prime, Gottmers said he won 25,000

euro

s. Not by week or by day, but by hour. The Dutch police themselves claim that this strategy is failing. It estimates the value of sales of ecstasy and amphetamines produced in the Netherlands at at least €19 billion.

I think we'd be surprised to actually know how much money is being invested in this. That's not what the Dutch government thinks. I think you can multiply that. The extent of synthetic drug production and trade also remains a matter of conjecture for our country. One of the few indicators is the discovered chemical waste dumps. 2018 was a record year in Belgium, with 43 landfills. This may indicate increased production, but it is also about control. Basic raw materials for drug production are included on a prohibited list and are more difficult to obtain. Criminals must import other substances to produce the original raw material.

A longer process, so with much more waste. Sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid and even BMK were still reasonably available. But now they have restricted all that. So what are you going to do now? You start looking for alternative substances that can replace that. Of course, that's much worse. To obtain a hallucinatory result, they sometimes add rat poison. Yes, then you are simply poisoning yourself. It's all garbage. Is incredible. Each kilo of MDMA or ecstasy produces 10 to 20 kilos of chemical waste. One kilo of amphetamine is equivalent to 30 kilos of dangerous residual product. But, according to Gottmers, the fact that there is much more waste in Belgium is also due to the increase in drug laboratories.

If you drive a van like this, you're already suspicious. And in Belgium that is even less. In Belgium it is also much easier to find places, beautiful places, where you can set up a laboratory. The Netherlands, I think especially in these places, is already full. And why would you go deeper into the country... ...if most of the drugs also go to Belgium and France? Then that stain just crosses the line. Are those Dutch coming to do it for us? Don't know. Of course, they could also be Belgian. The Belgians are not stupid. I think they will eventually be able to start producing it themselves.

We wanted to prove it, but now you have to be able to do it yourself. You can laugh at it, but producing it is extremely dangerous. In January there were three more deaths in a laboratory of this type in Belgian Limburg, possibly subcontractors, aspiring laboratory technicians. They're just guys who were taught that somewhere else. There they start a laboratory and get paid for it. Those are just victims. Sorry, three died. Wow, the next three. Gottmers himself also escaped death in such a laboratory. Wanting to produce too many amphetamines in too short a time. Then you rush and then you make mistakes.

And before you can put it in that saline solution, it has to have cooled down a lot. But we didn't have time for that, because it took us almost half a day. So what did we do? We know a lot. We did it half warm in that saline solution. Well, that's not possible. Then everything explodes. Then we also experienced an explosion. Yes, it really is a miracle that he survived this. Gottmers has turned his back on the criminal drug environment. When you ask him why, he shows this photo. We see the fear, the discomfort here. I tried to commit suicide shortly after.

I was 35 years old. His sentence has been served and Gottmers has now seen the light. He says he doesn't have a cent left of all that drug money. Sometimes they ask: Joop, do you ever feel the need to go back to that world? Then you still haven't understood it very well. No. But if I buy something now, I have to save. I had one of the first sports Mercedes in the Netherlands. I earned it one day. Now I have to save up for a bicycle. And now I'm ten times happier than when I was driving that Mercedes.

So yes, that's relative too.