Last week, people in the Netherlands watched grainy mobile phone footage of a police squad raiding a house in the centre of Amsterdam and leading out a suspected top crime boss in handcuffs. Dino Soerel, the son of a Surinamese father and Dutch mother, is suspected of drug trafficking and ordering a number of hits on rivals in the shadowy criminal underworld.

International criminal gangs are operating in the Netherlands but Dutch police do not have the capacity to really hurt organised crime gangs. Criminals are free to go about their business; trafficking in weapons, drugs and people, money-laundering and extortion, says journalist and crime author Marian Husken:

"If you arrest one criminal, another steps in to take his place. If you arrest members of the Dutch Mafia then criminals from elsewhere just move in and take over the business. The Netherlands has always had the same sort of business attitude towards illegal activities as towards legal activities. We've always been very handy in buying and selling".

International trading mentality
Crime reporter Gerlof Leistra also says criminal organisations make use of the international trading mentality and acumen of the Dutch. Criminals know that the chances of being caught in the Netherlands are very low and that combined with lenient sentencing policies and the country's excellent infrastructure makes the Netherlands a prime location to set up illegal businesses.

Mr Leistra says the large number of different nationalities that live in the Netherlands is an added bonus; criminals have contacts all over the world. Colombian cocaine traffickers use the Netherlands as the gateway to the rest of Europe by utilising the Colombian community in the Netherlands: "first the drugs, usually cocaine, leave South America and are transported via the Antilles or Suriname.

However, lately the drugs have gone directly to Nigeria. The gangs use men and women, known as drug mules, to smuggle the coke into the Netherlands. It's a real international network. Slowly but surely, an international Mafia is developing and Dutch criminals and are taking a share of the business".

Close co-operation
Organised crime organisations in the Netherlands co-operate closely and intensively. Whatever will yield the greatest return is what criminals are interested in at the moment, whether it be trafficking in cocaine, hashish, women or extortion.

According to Mr Leistra, criminals looking to turn a profit through the drug trade contact Afghans, Turks or Colombians. The marijuana trade is mostly in Turkish hands and the Chinese dominate the trade in fake designer goods and other in items involving copyright infringement. Criminals pump around 3.8 billion euros of their ill-gotten gains into the Dutch economy annually. Part of the money is used to pay off law enforcement officials, lawyers, civil servants and legitimate entrepreneurs.

White collars
The real estate world plays a huge role in money laundering. The murdered property magnate Willem Endstra was known as the 'banker to the underworld'. He was liquidated in front of his office in a wealthy part of Amsterdam shortly after he had a series of conversation with police investigators.

Another example is the businessman Jan-Dirk Paarlberg who was convicted of money laundering, racketeering and fraud earlier this year. Apart from the real estate business, Mr Leistra says police are paying close attention to the transport industry: "It's not only blokes with tattoos and scars who go to boxing matches and dogfights who are involved in crime, there are any number of respectable businessmen who are prepared to break the law in exchange for money".

Between 2000 and 2005, the Dutch public was regularly shocked by yet another liquidation in the underworld. Criminals 'took care of business' in broad daylight, sometimes in busy shopping streets or restaurants. In recent months, a series of murders and attacks have taken place that could be criminal gangs fighting for control of certain lucrative opportunities or revenge attacks. Seen in that light, it is understandable that prosecutors released footage of the successful arrest of Dino Soerel so quickly.