Criminal jobs for money: 19-year-old in court

Apparently without hesitation, a 19-year-old man from Breda accepted last year the assignment to shoot someone in the legs. Even the death of his 16-year-old co-defendant at a school in The Hague did not make him realize what kind of world he had entered. On Wednesday, January 21, the suspect appeared in court.

Behind the criminal case lies a shocking world in which teenagers and young adults are recruited to commit the most serious violent crimes. The client directs them via a phone, the young workers take all the risks. In exchange for a few hundred or a thousand euros promised to them.

The public prosecutor called it shocking at the hearing to see the scale on which young suspects receive these assignments. The suspect had assignments on his phone. Calls for criminal jobs: players wanted for a legday, to pick up drugs in the port, or to stick a door, meaning to place an explosive. All for money.

On the phone of the 19-year-old suspect from Breda, messages were found such as driver now report tantoe and stop with kkr sleeping. An hour later, the suspect borrowed the car at home and went out, together with a 16-year-old co-defendant.

Bigger role

That evening they had to go to Rotterdam to collect information, pick up a hidden firearm and scout a neighborhood. Messages show they had to give someone a legday: a warning by shooting in the legs. The suspect said at the hearing that he only knew at a late stage that it was about a legday. He said he no longer wanted to carry out the assignment then. But phone data shows a very different picture: he is the one of the two young suspects who frequently contacts the client and intermediary, also in the days after.

Because they were checked by the police that night and the 16-year-old boy just managed to throw the firearm out of the car in time, nothing else happened. It is clear that the job must be finished. Messages go back and forth between the suspects that the weapon (apparently picked up again) no longer works. A day later, it is presumed that the weapon is the one with which the 16-year-old boy fatally injured himself at school.

Demand

The Public Prosecution Service suspects the now 20-year-old suspect from Breda of co-perpetrating preparatory acts for a serious assault with premeditation. The Public Prosecution Service demands 24 months imprisonment, of which 6 months conditional. The court will announce its verdict in two weeks.

Other suspects

Earlier this week, the client in this case was already tried. The Public Prosecution Service demanded 5 years in prison for him. The court will announce its verdict on February 2 in his case.

The 15-year-old intermediary was also prosecuted. The court sentenced him in November to 290 days juvenile detention, of which 120 conditional, and 100 hours of community service.