No Mercy Supply

A Dutch Muslim

- A report of 2 parts from Highlife, spring 1999 / part 1-

A commentary about the backgrounds of the so-called organized crime in Holland according to cannabis. Goal of this commentary is to sketch a view of the people in the illegal circuit, who take care for the hash and hemp on our market. From the big bosses until the small home-grower: Highlife’s special reporter Charlie Stone, tries to enlighten all aspects of the underworld.

Karel (Cees/mr.XX/Cannaplant) is a former hash-smuggler from the south of Holland, who transported for many years lots of hash from Morocco to Holland, Germany and Scandinavia.

Interesting is the fact that Karel was living in Morocco, and he was not only responsible for transporting, but also for growing hemp en producing hash. So Karel had everything, from sowing on the fields to delivering to customers, in his own hands. He had a perfect construction and was only caught when he was in back in Holland again. His ex-wife, who worked together with the IRT to get a residence permit, betrayed him.

Karel went to jail and lost his money by the Ministry of Justice and Taxes. Nowadays he lives a withdrawn life and he is doing his favourite thing: improving the hemp-plant. You can read everything about the bizarre way of life in the smuggling-business and Karel’s life in Morocco in this Highlife.

Highlife: Karel, can you tell something from your background?

I was born and raised in Brabant, but went to Amsterdam when I was 16 years old. It was in the early seventies, time of the hippies, flower power and peace & love. I felt very attracted to the hippie-thing. I was smoking since I was 14 years old. In those days, that was very absurd. Besides I was living a fast life and tried, the same time, all kinds of dope, like heroine. That did not work out and before noticing I was addicted as hell. Fortunately I knew very soon, I was going the wrong direction and when I was 21 I volunteered to a clinic. Because I had the right character to survive, the treatment was successful and I became completely clean.

But it took over seven years - and then I mean especially mentally - to take the influence of two and a half years of heroin away. Since then I never took that shit anymore. I came in contact with the authorities for the first time by using heroine.

What did you do?

I cracked a safe-deposit. Those were the days of Aage M., the famous burglar and safe-deposit cracker. I saw him as an example. I learned how to make a thermic lace and I used it. The crack went okay, only I left behind a track, so the police was at my back quickly.

Were you professionally busy doing hash business in those days?

No. I always had a little hemp- garden, outside, but you could not call that professional. But I was very much interested in the hemp-plant, and I still am. You can say that I was and am really obsessed by it. If I had somewhere a little piece of ground empty, than I planted a few plants immediately.

That was only meant for growing your own stock?

Yes and no. The magic you experienced when you smoke this little plant, intrigued me some much, that I wanted to know how a plant like that grows. In those days there were no grow-shops and growing under artificial lights was unknown. That was only for a very small group of people. Good books were also seldom, I remember. Only hemp in gardens or pottery on the balcony was grown. My garden was always full of this. Later on, I specialized on growing in Morocco, and not only because of the great climate.

How did you get there?

I met a Moroccan girl, to whom I married. I was living in Morocco with her.

Was that only because of the plants?

Yes and no. I liked it here in Holland, but it was not exactly what I wanted in my life. I wanted to grow plants or start a shop, but you have to have a lot of money for that. I decided to sell hash. I had seen something of that world, and I liked the world of smoking people compared to the hard-drugs scene. I began the first deal with 150 guilders of my own and the rest I borrowed and I paid 370 guilders for an ounce of Afghan. With that I doubled my money. It was really good stuff. The result was that half a year later, I realized I really did make good money. I thought: a few more deals, and I can start my own shop. I began to think a lot over this subject. Where did it come from? Where could you get the best? In Morocco, became clear to me.

How old were you when you started dealing hash?

I was 21 years old. When I was 22 I went for the first time to Morocco. I went looking for people I met in Holland. I knew then who to contact for this business. The second time I drove up there, I had rebuilt my battery so that it was possible to hide four kilo of stuff. Nowadays we laugh at four little kilos, but in those days it was a lot. The prices in Holland were five of six thousand guilders for one kilo. You took four kilos only, but it was big in those days. In Morocco it costs 1.200 guilders. You sold it in Holland, besides one kilo for own use, and went back to Morocco for the next kilos. So I drove five or six times a year to Morocco.

Did you bring more and more every time?

Not at first. Although the battery was getting bigger every time. On a certain moment you could hide almost seven kilos. We drove two years up and down, only for those seven kilos. And whatever Customs thought or felt, they could never prove something, because we were never discovered. If you removed the buttons of the battery, you saw ordinary fluid. And the battery also did his normal job. The car started by it, although he was giving one-third of his amps, the voltage stayed 12. It went wrong only once, and then I was not there. Later on the battery was changed by Diesel-tanks. Then the boats and containers came and that is where it went wrong.

Did you drive alone or with company?

Most of the times with the two of us. On a certain moment we grew bigger. At best you can take 40 or 50 kilo. And Customs were checking more careful.

So they knew the exact weight of a certain car, and then they put the car on a scale. They even had infrared equipment. They got so advanced, that it was almost not possible to keep doing this. Besides, more and more farmers and businessmen sold their clients, after making a deal. Then they were waiting for you in Spain.

Then we switched to boats. We had in Morocco two speedboats, each of them with four Mercury-motors of 240 HP.

Were those your boats?

Our boats. In that time I had a companion, someone of there. By boat we transported between six and eight hundred kilos. Then you were lying on the beach, waiting, with the stuff buried in the sands. At ten o’clock in the evening you could dig it out and wait. If the weather turn out to be bad, you could bury it again until the next night. It had to be a quiet sea, without a full moon.

How did you contact Morocco?

In those days I lived in Morocco, half of the year.

Did your Moroccan wife know about your business?

She knew I was busy with kif, but she never asked. It is not done, over there, a woman does not usually ask about her man’s business. A man, who tells his wife everything about this, is almost abnormal.

Was the stuff you smuggled meant for the Dutch market?

It was mainly meant for the German and Scandinavian market. My first big money I made was for instance in Cristiania, the community for hippies in Copenhagen. Every two weeks we transported to that place. And those were transports of 80 to 120 kilos.

Did you sell your product yourself?

Yes, I did the whole thing: from the fields of Morocco to Holland and though to Germany and Scandinavia. At a certain moment we were so big that we did everything ourselves. We sowed and gathered it ourselves. We made nice packages of it and smuggled ourselves. We had our own sales-spots in Scandinavia. You can imagine what kind of money we made. But it took years to come this far, and sometimes those were hard years.

Why did you grow there?

The law over there is as following: If a local girl marries the Muslim way, and the father of the girl has already died, then she gets her heritage just after she is married. Because the father of my wife was dead, we got 11 acres of ground in the Rif-mountains. I was married to her the Muslim way. When we divorced, we also divorced the Muslim way, I had to go back to Morocco for it.

It was a kind of a business-marriage?

Yes, but we agreed to it with the whole family. They agreed. We build a farm on a piece of ground. I stayed for five years and sowed and gathered it for five years. And I went completely crazy of living in the mountains. Because it really gets to you.

Why?

When you come from here, you cannot live there. There is no electricity, no shower, and no toilet. And no privacy. You can last for five years, until you know what you want to know, and then you leave quickly.

What did you want to know?

Everything about these plants, haha. To give you an impression: in those days you had as a tourist no allowance to come into the neighbourhood where I lived. And don’t talk to me about Ketama. Ketama is just a little village at the front, for the tourists. So they can show you where they have been. That’s all. If you go into the mountains, then you can see the real fields. As far as you can see. And in the middle of that area, I was so lucky to build that farm.

You took your knowledge there?

I came to learn. The first year I did not say a word, I just looked and learned. What they did and why they did it like that. After a year I told them some ideas of mine. At that moment I was very respected, because I already had shown them I could estimate the kif on value. I always bought the plants, never stuff. I never bought hash there, only at the beginning, with the cars. Later we only bought plants. And we hired people to riddle. That meant you also kept the second quality. And the third quality. If you buy there hash, then you buy a certain quality and everything what comes out of the riddle, the farmer keeps for himself. If you use your own people to riddle, it is all for yourself.

What did you learn the best, the first year?

To see how badly the Moroccans treat their plants. They are also not interested to enlarge the quality. The plants are growing, if Allah wants it, if not, they do not grow.

Tell us something about your grow-activities?

You sow in February, when the rain-season is starting and you gather in June/July. After sowing you remove the males, except for a few, for the seeds. But there are so many plants sown that they barely survive on their space. There is also not enough rain to let the plants grow freely. The Moroccans throw seed on the ground and see what will happen. They are very lazy. Extremely lazy. The only thing they did was throwing a lot of artificial fertiliser. But that also has his repercussion on the ground. The quality of the plants was getting less. And you need 100 kilos of dried plants to make 300 - 800 grams hash of a different quality. If you make a good quality, then the leftovers are not too good. So this is often difficult for the farmer.

Did you make a lot or good quality?

You depend on a lot of things and in those days I was not busy improving. What I tried was to give the plants more space, to develop better. But it turned out that it did not make a lot of difference. The farmers were right about that. You should have a system of giving the plants enough water, which was the solution. But that was not possible in the mountains. That means they had to invest into a system and that this has to be noting more that a pipe going up and a pump down the mountain. Then you let some people dig some little canals, what cost almost nothing. Then you would be ready. But such thing costs money, so they don’t do it. You cannot let them invest some money, you can forget that.

Did you not have trouble with the authorities?

No, no, it was completely covered. After a year the Governor was a close friend of mine, together with the local police officer. If you only knew what money I spend to bribe in those years, it is really a lot. There were moments that we in the Governor’s Mercedes, with police in front of and at the back of the car, drove for 800 kilometres to the boat, together with 800 kilos stuff in the trunk. And we just drove on to the boat. The Governor has always a free way.

Why did you come back to Holland?

I couldn’t stand it any more. You cannot survive those circumstances. No electricity, no water, no nothing. Most of the year you couldn’t come to your own place with your car. You had to go by horse or donkey. After a while you have had that. There was also no communication at all with the people around me. I spoke Arab, but too little. It seems that those people come from another planet, anyway. After five years you crawl back into yourself, that is no good. And I knew everything that I wanted to know. And I did not have to stay there for the money too; I had lots of it. So that is why I went back. There also came more and more people from Holland to me. They knew I knew the people and knew who was to be trusted or not. I got more often approached to do things for people. In the beginning you do not realise where that can lead. Because those people want more and more. And then you get obliged and have to deal with situations where also you must be responsible for. So I packed compete containers for others, and had to take care for the price and quality. I did not want that any more.

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