KERKRADE - Members of a criminal organization that the judiciary believes was guilty of large-scale hemp cultivation are said to have invested their profits in South Limburg real estate. The Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) believes it has rounded up the gang with twenty raids.A total of six suspects were arrested yesterday in Limburg and Germany, including the suspected ringleaders TheoR.(48) from Grevenbicht-Papenhoven and Marcello T. (43) from Geleen. Three more suspects are from Sittard-Geleen and one is from Echt. They are suspected of involvement in hemp cultivation and money laundering. The suspicions form the second South Limburg file within a project launched last year to combat organizations behind large-scale cannabis cultivation. The other file concerns Kerkrade real estate dealer Joep J., whose 134 real estate properties were seized last year on suspicions of forgery and involvement in hemp cultivation, among other things. Whether there is a link between the two cases, the prosecution will not say. An unknown number of properties were also seized from R. and T. yesterday in addition to cash and cars. Both own at least seventeen premises, including a shed in Eygelshoven from which a company was run. This was engaged in converting sea containers into hemp nurseries, which were then sold or made available to third parties. Justice got on the gang's trail after some 20 cannabis plantations were dismantled in 2009 in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

The prosecution wants to strip the suspects bare by taking away all profits made. "Therefore, in addition to a criminal investigation, a financial investigation will also be launched," said prosecutor Daniele Weymar. The prosecutor wants to keep the six, who will be arraigned during the week, in pretrial detention for the time being. More arrests may follow, in part because yesterday it failed to apprehend a seventh suspect in Germany. The raids yesterday involved a total of 70 investigators from the police, FIOD-ECD and the Public Prosecution Service.