According to authorities, 17 raids and two arrests for money laundering in Rotterdam were the result of Suspicious Transaction Reports that Dutch banks sent to the FIU. The Fiscal Information and Investigative Service (FIOD) is currently concentrating its inquiry on several buildings that were bought with alleged criminal proceeds as well as fast motorboats. The primary suspect is a Rotterdam resident, 34 years old. There is another suspect, a man in his fifties. Numerous legal entities are registered in the names of both suspects.
Using purportedly illicit funds, the principal suspect used his legal firms to purchase several properties in the Netherlands and Belgium. Legal entities that have an indirect connection to the 51-year-old suspect—who had no direct stake in the property purchase—made the payments for these properties.
Moreover, materials and motors for the creation of so-called RHIBs (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats) have been purchased by dubious legal firms. These are extremely swift motorboats that are frequently employed in drug trafficking and smuggling operations. Once more, the persons who paid for the boats were not the legal entities that had bought them; rather, payments for the boats were made by third parties, according to the FIOD specialist in crime investigation agency.
In a statement, the FIOD stated that it received STRS from the FIU and that’s when the criminal investigation started. A researcher at FIU-Netherlands stated, “We did a complex preliminary analysis from FIU-the Netherlands, and the FIOD extended this to a nice criminal investigation. It started with several valuable reports from the banking sector and resulted in seventeen searches and two arrests.” It is believed that illicit funds acquired by this development were used for money laundering.
Monday, December 18, saw the FIOD raids, which resulted in the two suspects being arrested and 17 searches being conducted in the Netherlands and Belgium as part of two criminal investigations. Two males from Rotterdam, ages 34 and 51, were taken into custody. After that, they were taken to police stations to be questioned. Several arrests are not disqualified. According to the agency, the two are suspected of money laundering.
Along with numerous commercial buildings and residences in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Woerden, and The Hague, their homes have also been searched. Furthermore, bank accounts, computers, phones, real estate, boats, cash, silver, and automobiles were taken in addition to papers. The Public Prosecutor is in charge of the investigation.
