ARNHEM, WILLEMSTAD – 72 kilos of cocaine were discovered in a soldier’s belongings last year. The judges blame the man for smuggling drugs through a Defense distribution line.
A 34-year-old soldier has been sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for possession of over seventy kilos of cocaine that he tried to smuggle from Curaçao to the Netherlands. On Monday, the military chamber of the Arnhem court imposed a higher sentence on Ruben V. than was demanded because of a large amount of drugs and “the shameful way in which the man abused his position as a Dutch soldier in Curaçao”.
The drugs were discovered in late June last year in two sea containers at the naval base of Parera, which were to be transported to the Netherlands. The cocaine was hidden in three duffel bags with V.’s stuff and a camel bag in a locked army chest. V. had returned home a few days earlier. The soldier was arrested in the Limburg municipality of Peel en Maas.
DNA MATERIAL
V.’s DNA was found in two duffle bags and on the cocaine packaging material in the camel bag. His fingerprint was also found on tape from a garbage bag containing blocks of cocaine. The keys to the lock of the army chest and one of the duffel bags were found at the home of V.’s mother.
V. denies having anything to do with cocaine and says others have put the drugs between his things. However, the judges see ‘no proof’ of that. Also, according to the military chamber, the man-made “several implausible statements,” including the number of duffel bags he handed in and when he first heard about the cocaine smuggling investigation.
