Undermining crime

90% of organized crime is drug-related. Compared to the rest of the world, drug production in the Netherlands is very high. Drug premises are dangerous for your living environment because of the criminal presence. In hemp nurseries, criminals regularly manipulate electricity connections, leading to fire hazards. In the manufacture of hard drugs, criminals use chemical reactions, which can lead to environmental damage and explosion hazards. 

You can recognize a drug property by, among other things: 

• A hemp odor or chemical smell around a property;
• Always screened or taped windows and doors;
• Presence and movement around the home at odd hours;
• Visible heat in the home, such as fogged up windows or no frozen roof tiles in the winter months.

Over the last few years, the visibility of drug trafficking in Wassenaar has become much sharper. We see that an above-average amount of drug trafficking takes place in Wassenaar, and that drug dealers from big cities come to Wassenaar to trade their drugs. 

You can recognize drug trafficking by:

• In a street very short encounters with scooters or vehicles;
• Person with extraordinary amount of contact money in pocket;
• A person with multiple cell phones in possession;
• Always pay expenses in cash;
• Possession of expensive items disproportionate to income.

Criminals earn black money through illegal activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking or fraud. They channel this black money back into the upper world in many different ways, for example through rogue businesses, property purchases or renovations, or personal purchases. In Wassenaar we see signs of money laundering especially in retail, real estate ownership and rentals. 

You can recognize laundering by:

• A store or catering establishment where customers rarely come, but which continues to exist;
• A company where you can always checkout by contact only;
• A business building where activity is never seen;
• Individuals or companies that suddenly invest heavily without clear revenue;
• Expensive purchases or property holdings that do not fit the business or personal situation;
• Poor accounting or no transparency on income.

People who receive benefits receive them temporarily or for life because they are temporarily or structurally unable to work. They then receive benefits to still earn a living. However, these benefits are tied to tight Requirements. For example, if a person receives a Wajong benefit, he may not work in addition. In that case, no benefit is needed, and a person can still support himself. 

Benefit fraud can be recognized by a person on benefits who, for example:

• In addition to his benefits, he works black or does black odd jobs;
• Has many possessions in the form of expensive clothes, cars or lots of cash;
• Has two residence addresses, where he regularly resides at one address with a partner, but is registered as a single person at the other address;
• More persons live at one address than are known to the municipality;
• Structural residence abroad.

In the last few years, criminals have been using the healthcare industry in an increasingly fatherly way to siphon off money through bogus clients, phantom declarations or misuse of Personalized Budgets.

You can recognize healthcare fraud by:

• Payments for Health where no Health is delivered;
• A caregiver who doesn't really support clients much, if at all, but is commissioned and paid to do so;
• Duplicate claims in care delivery;
• Strange combinations of healthcare institutions.

Human trafficking is a catch-all term for forms in which people are forcibly exploited in sexual, labor or criminal ways. This occurs most often in the (illegal) prostitution industry, among migrant workers and among young people. 

Signs of this are:

• (illegal) prostitution activities, such as a residence where many different men arrive and leave;
• Persons working (possibly) under duress;
• Not having their own travel and identity documents;
• Not knowing exactly where they are;
• Afraid to talk about their personal situation.

Want more information specifically about human trafficking? Then check out the website of the Coordination Center Against Human Trafficking (Comensha). 

Yes. Your identity remains completely secret. The organization ensures that your report cannot be traced back to you in terms of content either.

Every report is taken seriously. Municipality and police investigate whether undermining is taking place. If so, we deploy measures to address the situation and prevent a recurrence.

If you report anonymously, we cannot inform you of the outcome. When reporting through the police or municipality, feedback is sometimes possible, but only if it does not harm the investigation.

Yes. To do so, contact your own neighborhood agent by phone or the municipality's undermining director at 14 070, or send an e-mail to ondermijning@wassenaar.nl.