Weed dealer in Thai prison
One of the most famous coffee shops in Brabant is 'The Grass Company' with two branches in Tilburg and two in Den Bosch. The Tilburg branch on the Spoorlaan is somewhat like a grand café because you can also have lunch and dinner there - if you take the weed smell for granted. You will not find the man who first started selling weed in the southern Netherlands in 1981, because founder Johan van Laarhoven is staying in a prison in Bangkok.
Judicial intervention
In 2010 Van Laarhoven sold the company and moved to Thailand. His successor came into contact with the judiciary in September 2011 for violating the maximum permitted 500 grams of weed that can be kept in stock. In a hidden room, the detectives found 8 kilos of weed and 15.000 ready-to-use joints. Since that time, the judiciary and The Grass Company have been at odds with each other and a police investigation has not yet been completed.
On April 11, a Belgian lawyer was arrested at Schiphol Airport, who is seen as Johan van Laarhoven's financial advisor and would have helped him for years in laundering the money he earned. This happened from Luxembourg, where since 1999 the income obtained from the weed trade has been housed.
Turnover and profit
The average turnover of a coffee shop is estimated at one kilo per day with a selling price of 8 euros per gram. A simple calculation shows that when operating four shops, 32.000 euros slide into the cash registers every day. The tax inspection assumes that 50% of this can be counted as net income. Not a bad income you can say and it is not surprising that the industry is not entirely wrongly associated with the criminal circuit in many cases.
Founder in Thai cell
Since July 23, 2014, the founder of The Grass Company, Johan van Laarhoven, has been spending his days in a prison in Bangkok.
The Thai authorities suspect him of having laundered his money earned in the Netherlands from the weed trade in Thailand with the purchase of real estate. Thai authorities seized bank accounts, houses and cars worth 2 million Thai baht last year. According to the Bangkok Post, XNUMX pistols and ammunition were also found and Van Laarhoven is suspected of having sent marijuana from Thailand to the Netherlands for years.
Van Laarhoven has been living in Thailand since 2008 with his Thai wife, who is also detained. The trial against Van Laarhoven will start in Bangkok this week and the criminal judgment will probably be passed on him. Thailand has assured the Dutch judiciary that he will not receive the death penalty.
The well-known criminal lawyer Spong accuses the Netherlands that Van Laarhoven was “thrown before the Thai lions”. The court in The Hague will soon decide whether a request for extradition should be submitted, as Spong demands. Van Laarhoven has now lost 23 kilos in 'the hell of Bangkok' as he calls it.
Source: Brabants Dagblad
So won, so done.
The story about the upcoming court case was also in the Dagblad van het Noorden. from which this interesting passage:
“It promises to be a complicated matter. Because just explain to a Thai judge that something that is prohibited by law, selling soft drugs, is still allowed in practice. Yet that is what lawyer Sidney Smeets will do from Tuesday. "The case revolves around investments he made in Thailand with the proceeds from his coffee shops," he explains.
The Thai authorities see these investments as money laundering. After all, the money comes from (tolerated) drug trafficking. "My colleague Gerard Spong will also go to Thailand in July to give an explanation as an expert witness about the Dutch tolerance policy," said Smeets.
Read the whole article in DVHN:
http://www.dvhn.nl/nieuws/nederland/coffeeshopondernemer-voor-thaise-rechter-12634523.html
I think that in the end the Thai judges after all those complicated "farang jurist explanations" will rely solely on the Thai approach to the law, and if funds are not officially brought in or declared…. by by money!.
I have a small suspicion that NL will not request extradition, the funds are apparently already in Thai frozen assets, so nothing to collect for NL budget
According to the Bangkok Post, 2 pistols and ammunition were also found and Van Laarhoven is suspected of having sent marijuana from Thailand to the Netherlands for years.
Now you can tell me a lot, but bringing marijuana from Thailand to the Netherlands is about the same as bringing rice from the Netherlands to Thailand, so bullshit!
Well what you say Geert, that's too much credit for those dried weeds they sell in Thailand. If you are going to sell that in a Coffeeshop in the Netherlands, you can close your tent within a week.
Use and sale of drugs,
and the laundering of criminal money,
is a criminal offense here in Thailand!
And ONE HUNDRED MILLION BAHT
that is quite something.
That amount is not too bad if you consider that Van L. has spent years for it, and many Dutch football players earn such an amount in euros every year.
Look, I think that's justice and that man can stay in the cell from me, but there is a whole army working to get him released
But I don't think it's appropriate that if you forgot the date of your visa because you had a cerebral infarction, nobody wants to help you and on the TB it is still said, by various bloggers, it's your own fault.
computing
I like losing 23 kilos, he will stick to diet rules in the
jail 🙂
So far the Dutch rules that do not apply internationally, and that get Dutch people into trouble abroad.
In addition, it is also his own fault, enriching yourself on the backs of addicts. the THC level of today is very different from that of the 70s.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, they did not want him to be arrested at all, but if Thailand hears weed, well then it is wrong. But make no mistake about the Public Prosecution Service, wanting to score at any price. They also used that pilot Poch with a box of tricks arrested.On his 65th and last flight to Spain he was arrested in Spain.That man thought it was a joke for his birthday, but alas..extradition and has been held for years with shadowy witnesses.If it was a case between Johan and the Public Prosecution Service is, they will have to find out in Holland and not here.
Moderator: After a period or a comma there will be a space, you want to make sure of that from now on, otherwise your comment may end up in the trash and that would be a pity.
Van L. gets to smoke a heavy pipe when in 2010 he thought he could sit more at ease in TH. In TH he cannot be blamed for drug trafficking: it remains to be proven that he indeed sent marijuana from TH to NL. According to his lawyer Smeets, the case is therefore about money laundering of drug money in TH.
Mr. Spong does not have to come to TH to explain the NL soft drug tolerance policy. Van L. has (apparently) not adhered to the borders within that policy in the Netherlands, and has therefore (presumably) been able to make a lot of money through illegal activity. Therefore, in my humble opinion, Spong will not succeed in convincing the TH court that there is no question of criminal money if he argues that the trade in soft drugs is permitted in the Netherlands, or tolerated. NL has to know that all for itself, and TH has no further interest in that. TH is not going to interfere.
What matters now is that the Dutch Justice Department suspects Van L. of not having stayed within the Dutch legal framework. Van L. earned a lot of money with this, and that money was brought to TH by Van L.. Money from criminal activities, and if that were not the case, the NL Justice would not have been behind its rags. Van L. bought villas and cars with that money. Last year he appeared on the Thai news with all his belongings. The fact that he had to live here extremely wealthy is now breaking him down nicely. He would have been better off keeping his laundry a little under wraps, with a bank account in the Cayman Islands.
The irony of the whole thing is that it is precisely the NL Justice that put TH on his track. Van L. also makes a miscalculation here. He probably considered himself unapproachable in TH. The TH judge also understands that Van L. was not involved in baking fries in NL, plus that apparently since 1999 money from criminal activities found its way illegally from Luxembourg.
Another ironic thing is that many Thai women in Tilburg earned a good pocket money by rolling and manufacturing ready-made joints. That pocket money was sometimes so high that the Brabant hubby himself hung up working. With which a Thai tradition was also honored there.
Man is an issue is still being investigated in the Netherlands. It has not been proven that funds transferred and imported into Thailand originated from drug trafficking. That is an assumption and estimate. He has not been convicted of tax debt or fraud. Thailand is there like the chickens to seize so that local Thais take over the business
can take over for free and government officials get their share. Thailand can claim that the money comes from drug trafficking, but lacks the evidence. Nevertheless, the man will be robbed of his investments and deported as an unwanted farang. Bring back the course of events with Wolfgang in Soi Diana/Pattaya who has also been robbed of 100 million Baht of property on accusations from Germany.
Will it depend on whether it has been indicated or officially transferred, or as in the article the Belgian lawyer transferred it for him, perhaps he sang a long "song" at his arrest at Schiphol...?
Also, if it cannot be proven that it originated from the weed trade….. then from what? Selling stroopwafels in a coffee shop .sometimes….
If L.'s tax returns show that he was able to possess that hundred million baht, then there can be no money laundering here.
Moreover, he has not committed any criminal offense in the Netherlands.
This is just a dirty game of the Dutch or Thai state or they even play it together I don't know but the story there is definitely a bit fishy. Anyway, the Dutch state and what they do for you as soon as you cross country borders, stop everyone who has a big mouth about their own fault, big bump, I hope you don't end up in a bit of a bad luck situation abroad one day I wonder what their reaction will be afterwards.
what a fuss I worked in the penitentiary for 13 years and don't tell me until they are all sweethearts. We are not talking about a "John in the cap" who messes around.
This is a very conscious choice and don't expect the other side to sit still.
Who knows, his risk analysis wasn't good enough! Think of it as a contribution to the New Fatherland to mitigate the rice crises. Honest???
Just wonder why people are so concerned about this if one sees how much real suffering there is in Thailand, among other things, of wretches who never come out of their misery. Can't it be like “Jeez they've arrested a Dutchman? Gods who have thrown many of these countries into misery. What made us nice and rich, thanks for that and my conscience is also very open!!
Besides, as long as it doesn't become legal, mopping with the tap will remain open.
The profits can be so huge in a short time, or eg 50 years of work and you still have nothing, haha It's just how your morale is built.
Yes, it is also logical that someone will do all kinds of things to get out of it and if he succeeds, fine, he has my blessing, he has more chances than, for example, the boat refugees, but don't play the soul pie.
also the comparison “wait until it happens to yourself” Right talk about what is crooked.
grsj
If it cannot be proven in Th that the money came from criminal activities (if that had been the case; why did the Dutch tax authorities not intervene earlier?) and this gentleman will be deported, there will be a big problem in NL. The Dutch State (the tax payer) will pay for it because everyone knows that a mega claim will be submitted. I think the new public prosecutor there has a "Bitch" mentality that will cause quite a few problems. You can say whatever you want; The Dutch justice and tax authorities have already made so many mistakes in this case, it promises to be an exciting story. The limits of social tolerance have been exceeded when it comes to the policy of tolerance and too late by judicial/fiscal intervention. I do not want to say anything good about a suspect in this trade, but it is clear that it will have far-reaching consequences for Dutch (wandering) judicial and fiscal policy.
If I think about it for a moment, it turns out that this started last year ….. yes?, then Teeven was still in office or not ….., it seems that the current public prosecutor has nothing to do with that unless there is further Dutch step-by-step plan follows …