The Leeuwarden court convicted a 22-year-old man on Tuesday for involvement in the explosion in a drug lab in Haule that killed a 53-year-old man. He was sentenced to two years in prison and one year of probation. The public prosecutor had demanded four years, of which one and a half years were conditional.
Badly injured
The suspect is guilty of complicity in the preparation of hard drugs and of having the means of production for the preparation of hard drugs.
He was arrested after the explosion, in 2022. He himself was seriously injured.
Barrel with chemicals
On May 31, 2022, the police responded to a report of a barn fire in Haule. Upon arrival they found the suspect. He had suffered burns all over his body. He said he worked in a drug lab.
When pressurizing a stainless steel vessel (a large boiler), the vessel would have exploded. The barrel contained chemicals for making amphetamine. As a result, the walls of the warehouse where the drug lab was located were blown down and part of the roof was completely blown away.
Fire brigade
The fire brigade later found a second person. His body was found in several pieces twenty meters away in a meadow.
Expert research shows that a large quantity of substances and objects were present at the location for the manufacture of MDMA, the active substance in ecstasy pills.
The court takes into account that the suspect was on probation for a previous conviction when committing these offenses. The most recent report from the Probation Service shows that the suspect has been experiencing positive development since January 2023, the court said.
The suspect is still suffering from his injuries and will have to undergo several more operations. The man who died was a good friend of his.
