Dutch police arrested six men after discovering cargo containers that had been converted into a makeshift prison and soundproofed “torture chamber” complete with a dentist’s chair and tools, including pliers, scalpels and handcuffs, a high-ranking officer announced on Tuesday.
Authorities said that police conducted the raid before the torture chamber could be used and alerted potential victims, who went into hiding.
The discovery was made last month by officers investigating leads generated by data from encrypted smartphones used by criminals.
The communications network has been cracked by French police, and detectives in Britain and the Netherlands have arrested hundreds of suspects based on the messages.
Tuesday’s announcement gave a chilling insight into the increasingly violent Dutch criminal underworld, which is involved in the large scale production and trafficking of drugs.
Dutch police last week said that their investigations, codenamed 26Lemont, based on millions of messages from the EncroChat smartphones, had led to the arrest of more than 100 suspects, the seizure of more than 8,000kg of cocaine and 1,200kg of crystal methamphetamine, and the dismantling of 19 synthetic drugs labs and seizure of dozens of firearms.
On June 22, Dutch police arrested six men on suspicion of crimes, including preparing kidnappings and serious assault.
Detectives also discovered the seven converted cargo containers in a warehouse in Wouwse Plantage, a small village in the country’s southwest, close to the border with Belgium, a statement released on Tuesday said.
They were tipped off by messages from an EncroChat smartphone, including photographs of the container and a dentist’s chair, with belts attached to the arm and foot supports.
The messages called the warehouse the “treatment room” and the “ebi,” a reference to a top security Dutch prison.
The messages also revealed the identities of potential victims, who were warned and went into hiding, police said.
Video released by the police showed a heavily armed arrest team blasting open a door at the warehouse and discovering the improvised prison.
Another armed team detained a suspect in Rotterdam.
“Six of the containers were intended as cells in which people could be tied up and one container was intended as a torture chamber,” Dutch National Criminal Investigation Service head Andy Kraag said in a video released by police, adding that the police operation “prevented a number of violent crimes.”
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
RSS