The Court of Rotterdam has sentenced seven men that illegally accessed the terrain of the Port of Rotterdam, allegedly to collect drugs from shipping containers, to three to five months in prison. These collectors are so-called first offenders. Normally, first offenders receive a lighter sentence compared to the maximum penalty, but in this instance, this is not the case. Joost Nan, Professor of Criminal (Procedural) Law at Erasmus School of Law, thinks the punishment is quite severe and doubts its effectiveness.
Since 1 January 2022, the new legal provision, article 138aa of the Criminal Code, is in force: those who trespass a terrain of a port, airport, or a railway yard can be sentenced to up to one year in prison.
The punishments of three to five months in prison, which the seven collectors received, are heavy, explains Nan. “A prison sentence of three months is not often imposed. When you steal a stick of butter for the first time, you will not go to jail. When you hit someone for the first time, you will be fined. The maximum penalties for theft and assault are much higher, but most of the time, a first offender gets a lower sentence.”
Drugs crime is an ongoing problem in our society, especially in the Port of Rotterdam. Through severe punishments, the legislator and the judge aim to fight drugs trafficking and to scare off criminals. However, Nan has his doubts about the effectiveness of these high sentences: “It is not about these boys, but about the criminal organisation behind them. (…) This intervention does disturb the chain, of course, but I have my doubts about whether the organisation suffers from these prison sentences.”
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Read the entire article by RTL Nieuws here (in Dutch).