The Netherlands has a state within a state problem. A new government report just made it official.
A brand new government report published this week has confirmed what many Dutch criminologists have been warning about for years: organised crime in the Netherlands is no longer lurking in the shadows. It has embedded itself into everyday society, and in some neighbourhoods it is more influential than the government itself.
The report, called the Dreigingsbeeld Ondermijning Nederland 2026, was published on 26 May by the Strategic Knowledge Centre for Subversive Crime, a body operating under the Ministry of Justice and Security. It is the first of its kind, two years in the making, and its conclusions are striking.
What the report actually says
The report identifies five mutually reinforcing threats facing Dutch society from organised crime. Criminal networks are offering housing, loans, healthcare, prescription medicine, and physical protection in areas where the state is failing to meet basic needs. They are actively recruiting schoolchildren. They are bribing and intimidating public officials. They are laundering money through legitimate businesses. And they are working in coordination with foreign state actors and ideological movements.
The language used by the report is deliberately stark. It describes subversive crime as working like concrete rot, gradual, often invisible, and eroding the foundations of society from the inside. The major danger it identifies is that a state within a state could emerge, with criminal networks replacing public services and building their own parallel structures of loyalty and dependency.
Justice Minister David van Weel responded directly to the report, stating that organised crime is no longer about an underworld operating in secret. The underworld, he said, no longer exists as a separate entity. It is everywhere.
This is not a new problem. But it is getting worse.
The Netherlands has been aware of the threat from organised crime for years. The murder of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries in Amsterdam in 2021, who was advising a crown witness in the Marengo trial against cocaine kingpin Ridouan Taghi, sent a shockwave through Dutch society. Alleged plots against then-prime minister Mark Rutte and Crown Princess Amalia followed in 2022, with Amalia forced to abandon plans to live in student accommodation due to security concerns.
What the new report makes clear is that the visible violence is only the surface layer. The deeper problem is structural infiltration: criminal money flowing through real estate, transport, hospitality, healthcare, and retail. Legitimate businesses being used as fronts. Public servants being compromised.
Where the vulnerabilities are
The report is specific about which parts of Dutch infrastructure are most at risk. The Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port and a cornerstone of the Dutch economy, is identified as a prime target. So are the Noordzeekanaal area, Zeeland, Schiphol airport, the Zuidas financial district in Amsterdam, and the horticulture sector.
This cuts close to the bone. These are not peripheral parts of the Dutch economy. They are the arteries. The same infrastructure that makes the Netherlands the world’s second largest food exporter and a global logistics hub also makes it an extraordinarily attractive operating environment for criminal networks moving drugs, money, and people across Europe.
A RAND Europe study commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Justice previously found that Rotterdam and Schiphol are particularly vulnerable to drug-related corruption, with authorities likely intercepting only a fraction of illegal shipments passing through.
Children are being recruited
One of the most alarming elements of the new report is its focus on youth recruitment. Criminal networks are actively targeting schoolchildren, drawing them in with the appeal of quick money. Europol confirmed last year that 280 arrests were made across Europe in connection with the recruitment of young people to carry out violent crimes.
The Dutch government says it intends to increase the resilience of young people against this kind of recruitment as one of its immediate priorities following the report.
What happens next
The report itself makes no policy recommendations. Its purpose is to give the cabinet a clear picture of the threat so that targeted action can follow. A government letter to parliament has outlined plans to widen the response beyond police and justice to include businesses, schools, healthcare institutions, and local municipalities.
Whether that response will be enough is a different question. What the report makes undeniable is that the problem has moved well beyond law enforcement. It is a societal challenge, and the Netherlands is only beginning to reckon with its full scale.
