Criminal networks in some Dutch neighbourhoods and sectors are embedding themselves deeply enough to risk creating a “state within a state”, according to an official assessment of subversive crime.
State services on housing, healthcare and protection are being manipulated and in some cases replaced by organised crime groups, it says.
The Dreigingsbeeld Ondermijning Nederland 2026 report, published by the justice ministry’s Strategic Knowledge Centre on Subversive Crime, is the first of its kind and has been in preparation for two years.
It sets out five mutually reinforcing threats: criminal groups offering housing, loans and protection; recruitment of school children; bribing and intimidating state officials, money laundering through legitimate businesses, and the connection of gangs with hostile states and ideological actors.
Laundering and murder
As these elements compound, the report warns, the state is beginning to lose power over certain neighbourhoods and sectors. “Examples in some Latin American countries show such developments can actually happen,” it says.
Some signals are already visible in the Netherlands. The report cites the 2021 murder of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who was advising a crown witness, alleged criminal plots in 2022 against then-prime minister Mark Rutte and the crown princess, and a foiled kidnapping of the Belgian justice minister.
It identifies the country’s major economic infrastructure – the ports of Rotterdam, the Noordzeekanaal area and Zeeland, Schiphol airport, the Zuidas financial district and the horticulture sector – as particularly attractive to criminal networks.
Filling the gap
The mechanism the report describes is one in which criminal networks step into needs the state is not meeting: housing, healthcare, loans, prescription medicine and physical protection.
One example is southern Limburg. After the 2021 floods, which caused around €400 million of damage to homes, 270 hospitality businesses and 180 shops, mayor Daan Prevoo confirmed two years later that criminals had approached financially ruined hospitality owners with offers of help – and later demanded favours in return.
The report also flags the large-scale recruitment of young people through social media platforms and in schools. Europol estimates more than 100 recruiters are operating in the Netherlands, each with up to 100 young people available to carry out violence, kidnappings or explosions for hire.
What the cabinet plans
Justice Minister David van Weel said the government would send parliament a brief on a new anti-corruption strategy for the public sector before the summer.
The coalition agreement also signals an Italian-style anti-mafia approach, including an expansion of the crown-witness scheme, currently before the Council of State, which would allow smaller-scale criminals to win acquittal in exchange for testimony.
The report itself makes no policy recommendations. The Strategic Knowledge Centre says its purpose is to provide an integrated picture of subversive crime to inform the cabinet’s response.
