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European Masters in Drug and Alcohol Studies
Nadine Gerarda Maria van Gelder
February 2024
ASSIGNMENT FOR MODULE ‘DRUGS AND CRIME’
Assessment of the recent judicial approach towards
“uithalers” of cocaine in the Dutch Rotterdam harbour
What are “uithalers”?
The term uithalers refers to people who get out (Dutch verb: “uithalen”) incoming illegal cocaine shipments
from containers in the Rotterdam harbour by sneaking in and out unauthorised (Ministerie van Financiën,
2023). They are often young people, sometimes minors – ages of those caught range from 14 until 53 years
old, with most between 18 and 30 years of age (Venneman, 2023; De Lange, 2023). The possible earnings of
(tens of) thousands of Euros in payment (and the luxury clothing and accessories which can then be
purchased, acting as status symbols) seem to be the main motivation for people to take on a job as uithaler,
which are mostly offered via services such as Telegram and SnapChat (Venneman, 2023). According to a
public prosecutor (NOS, 2023b), the motivation for young uithalers is indeed financial: “The reason they do
it, is of course the money involved. The attraction is enormous. You see a friend driving a big car. They wear
expensive shoes and watches”. Although drug use does not generally seem to be present among uithalers,
their motivation seems in line with the study by Rolando et al. (2020) among 198 youngsters in aged 15-25
whom have come into contact with the criminal justice system in six European countries: “[the results]
suggest that while economic inequalities still play key roles in explaining drug use and offending, both
behaviours can originate from a state of relative deprivation, resulting from the contradictions inherent in
‘bulimic societies’ that raise aspirations and desires while providing young people scarce opportunities for
self-realisation and social recognition”.
Harsher sentencing
Whereas before, uithalers could only receive a 95 Euro fine for trespassing when caught in the harbour, a
new law (colloquially called the “Uithalerswet”) was approved by the Senate late 2021 in an attempt to
better tackle the issue of uithalers, mostly through deterring people who consider to do this via harsher
sentencing (Mr. Online, 2022). Under the new article (138aa) in the Dutch Criminal Code (Overheid.nl,
2024) people caught in the port can face a prison sentence of up to one year. In the case of presence of a
variety of aggravating factors, this sentence can be heightened (Ministerie van Financiën, 2023).
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The police force, the public prosecutor and the customs authorities hoped that the new law deters
(young) people who may consider collaborating in these activities and take up jobs as uithaler (Venneman,
2023). Indeed, as the current demissionary Minister of Justice and Security describes: “The main purpose of
the law is to deter potential ‘uithalers’ from engaging in these activities. Previously, only a fine could be
imposed. Currently, community service orders and prison sentences are imposed. These penalties are more
deterring than the previous options,” (Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid, 2023a). Additionally,
“criminalisation has made it possible to offer probation to those for whom it is useful, helping them to
choose a better path,” (Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid, 2023b).
Companies in the Rotterdam harbour had expressed concern that uithalers may resist more
violently upon arrest as they now face a potential prison sentence instead of a mere fine (Van Niekerk,
2021; Gunneweg, 2022). Another possible adverse consequence of harsher repression against uithalers in
the Rotterdam harbour, Europe’s largest port, is that the collecting of the illegally shipped cocaine would
start to happen outside of the port terminal. Criminals could place transmitters on trucks to rob them while
on the road, or to raid the distribution centre of destination (Venneman, 2023). Up to date, however, there
have been no signs of such adverse effects.
First effects
In the first years after the new law went into force, it did not yet have much effect on actually prosecuting
uithalers with prison sentences. Courts often concluded that the cases concerned first offenders whom
should not receive the highest sentence, or concluded that it could not be proven that the trespassing was
made with the goal of obtaining illegally shipped cocaine from the port. Instead, those prosecuted received
a community service order and a suspended prison sentence. The court deemed these sentences should be
deterring enough, and that first offenders should not immediately be faced with a criminal record and all of
its consequences (Teiwes, 2023; NOS, 2022; EenVandaag, 2023). According to the police, about 90% of
arrestees was a first offender in 2023 (Politie.nl, 2023).
After an initial lowering of the number of arrests for uithalen during 2022, a chief Public Prosecutor
acknowledged that it was too early to draw conclusions regarding effectiveness of the new law
(EenVandaag, 2023). And although the number of arrests for uithalen indeed halved in 2022 as opposed to
2021, during 2023, an arrest of an uithaler was made 452 times in the Rotterdam port – roughly the same
number as 2021, before the new law was imposed (Open Rotterdam, 2024; EenVandaag, 2023). During the
first half of 2023, more uithalers (217 as opposed to 251 during all of 2022) were already caught in the
harbour, and 15% of them were minors (as opposed to 8% in 2022). According to a police spokesperson,
the explanation for the rise in the percentage of minors caught may be that criminal organisations
specifically look for people who have not yet been prosecuted for a criminal offence, and therefore tend to
target youth (NOS, 2023a). Late 2023, there was a sudden rise in the number of arrests of uithalers, for
which the explanation is currently unknown. According to a harbour inspector, possibilities are the darker
times of year make it more easy to sneak into the port, and/or it could have to do with the harvesting
season in coca-producing countries (Rijnmond, 2023).
In 2022, the first prison sentences for uithalers were imposed (RTL Nieuws, 2022). In January 2023,
the public prosecutor also, for the first time, tried to impose even harsher sentences by prosecuting five
uithalers for ‘participation in a criminal organisation’, for which one can receive a sentence of up to six
years imprisonment (Teiwes, 2023). Although this prosecution was in the end unsuccessful, the men
received prison sentences nonetheless (De Lange, 2023; Rechtspraak.nl, 2023).
Deterrence
As Nagin (2018) explains, the criminal justice system may prevent crime through three ways: 1)
incapacitation, which takes away (most) possibilities for committing crimes for the duration of the
imprisonment, 2) general deterrence, which means “the threat of punishment may discourage criminal
acts”, and 3) specific deterrence, meaning discouragement due to having experienced punishment. Nagin
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notes that the certainty of apprehension is of more importance for a deterrent effect than the severity of
punishment. Indeed, Chalfin and McCrary (2017) write in their review that “the best available evidence
suggests that the experience of arrest does lead to an increase in the perceived likelihood of being
apprehended for a future crime. [...] Overall, the evidence suggests that individuals respond to the
incentives that are the most immediate and salient. [...] the cost of a prison sentence, if experienced at all, is
experienced sometime in the future.”
Although the aim of general deterrence was the suggested motivation behind the “Uithalerswet”,
current effects suggest it may function primarily as a specific deterrent: the (currently demissionary)
Minister of Justice and Security has replied to questions on the subject from the House of Representatives
with the statement that “given the limited number of repeat offenders among all ’uithalers’ (25% in 2023),
it can be said that the law at least has a deterrent effect on the behaviour of frequent ‘uithalers’. Before the
law came into force, those who had been detected were sometimes found again on a port site shortly
afterwards” (Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid, 2023). It is currently unclear whether these first offenders
who did not become repeat offenders received a prison sentence or another sanction. In addition, as
mentioned above, the numbers of arrests for uithalen has gone back in 2023 up after an initial lowering in
2022, and more minors seem to be involved.
Alternative sanctions
Alternative sanctioning for drug-related offences now tends to refer to “drug using offenders” (Kruithof et
al., 2016) who end up in the criminal justice system; yet it could be argued this approach could also be
applied to people getting involved in the illegal drug market without necessarily being users of illicit drugs.
This can be understood the same way as diversion measures for simple drug possession are defined as
initiatives that ‘direct people away from criminal sanctions and towards educative, therapeutic or social
services’ (Bacon, 2023). In Belgium (Plettinckx et al., 2017) as in The Netherlands (Rijksoverheid, 2024), out
of a total of 13 identified by Kruithof et al. (2016) the following ATP are available: probation, conditional
release, mediation, community service, and electronic monitoring.
There seem to be various reasons why alternative sanction may be more beneficial as opposed to
prison sentences: Plettinckx et al. (2017) describe that alternatives to prison (ATP) “limit the time spent in
prison and create the opportunity to improve various life domains, such as housing, employment, social
environment and leisure time through empowerment of offenders”. In addition, Mears and Cochran (2017)
did not find clear support for the theory that tougher sanctions would reduce recidivism among first
offenders. They write: “regular or intensive probation consistently was associated with less recidivism as
compared to the more severe sanction alternatives of jail and prison”. However, as mentioned above, the
occurrence of recidivism does seem to decline among first offenders of uithalen since the new law. Also, a
recent study from The Netherlands (Prop et al., 2023) found that sentencing young adults to any type of
juvenile sanction (community service, conditional or unconditional juvenile detention) increases the risk of
recidivism, but also that unconditional juvenile detention showed no difference regarding this risk when
compared to adult detention. The authors do argue that is programme integrity and implementation
among the intended target group are of importance for the effectiveness of juvenile detention, and that
young adults may be better off in juvenile detention due to the pedagogical instead of deterrent focus.
In their ‘Study on alternatives to coercive sanctions as response to drug law offences and drug-
related crimes‘ for the European Commission, Kruithof et al. (2016) found that “the use of ACS was
reported to be strongly influenced by the individual beliefs of those responsible for imposing ACS, such as
prosecutors and judges”. In a recent study, Bacon (2023) analysed the following two main motives among
professionals for wanting to implement alternative sanctions (i.e. diversion from the criminal justice
system): 1) reduce harms of criminalisation and/or 2) crime prevention (closely linked to improving health
and wellbeing). Underlying the first motive are, among others, avoiding criminal records, arrests and police
custody. Yet interestingly, diversion was not often deemed appropriate for drug supply offences:
interviewees in Bacon’s study mostly considered criminalisation to be justified for these types of offences.
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The act of uithalen would indeed surmount to a drug supply offence. As stated above, however,
judges in The Netherlands in practice seem to tend to impose alternative sanctions instead of a prison
sentence for uithalen, especially when the case involves a first offence and/or not does not contain enough
proof that trespassing in the port had the purpose of obtaining cocaine from containers. Bacon (2023)
describes that “reviews of international evidence [...] indicate that diversion away from the criminal justice
system and into support services can have positive outcomes on recidivism [...].” As stated above, recidivism
indeed seems in decline among first offenders of uithalen, where likely not a prison but an alternative
sanction has been imposed (as the cases concerned first offenders). In conclusion, however, it seems that
clear conclusions on the best approach regarding the most effective form of sentencing regarding uithalers
cannot yet be drawn, but the new law does not seem to be a general deterrent for (potential) uithalers.
References
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