Picture: ANP
The Nationwide Felony Investigation Division is worried in regards to the rise of felony intermediaries who bribe officers to acquire information and who then resell the knowledge to felony organisations. Normal director Arthur van Baaren of the Nationwide Investigation Division says in an interview in NRC that “corrupting civil servants has grow to be a enterprise mannequin”.
In keeping with Van Baaren, authorities establishments are sometimes nonetheless too naive and workers are hardly conscious, if in any respect, that criminals are very within the info they’ve. This issues private information: names, addresses, license plates and passport or driving license numbers.
Van Baaren explains within the newspaper {that a} corrupt official and the felony used to know one another, for instance by means of faculty or from the neighbourhood. “Now we see intermediaries who intentionally search for officers they’ll corrupt. They then promote the knowledge they collect on this option to a number of felony organizations.”
The top of the Nationwide Felony Investigation Division would love the civil servant to be licensed for some authorities actions, resembling issuing a passport. In keeping with him, a Certificates of Good Conduct (VOG) just isn’t all the time ample.
“In relation to corruption and leaking info, we investigated 49 circumstances in 2022, in line with our annual report that might be revealed on Wednesday,” says Van Baaren in NRC. “However aside from the numbers, I’m primarily involved about the kind of circumstances.”
For instance, he cites a former municipal official in The Hague who was convicted on the finish of final 12 months for forging passports for critical criminals, together with Ridouan Taghi and Naoufal F. She was additionally approached by a contact one that, for the courtroom, was the hyperlink between the highest and known as underworld. “Sadly, this isn’t an incident, we see this usually,” says Van Baaren.
