Dutch authorities detained three people as part of an international investigation into a global smuggling network that allegedly worked to evade EU sanctions against Russia, Politico informed.
The Netherlands’ Fiscal Information and Investigation Service stated on Tuesday that it had arrested three people in their early fifties from Diemen and The Hague on January 9. Raids were also conducted in Estonia, Latvia, Germany and Canada.
Two of the suspects managed a Dutch-registered company established in 2017. It exported “technological and laboratory equipment” with potential “military purposes” to Russia, the Eurojust agency claimed.
The EU has been imposing sanctions on Russia since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022, but the bloc’s measures have been repeatedly criticised due to plenty of loopholes on how to circumvent the restrictions.
Last October, a Dutch court sentenced a Russian businessman to a year and a half in prison for exporting electronic items to Russia, stating that dodging sanctions was his “revenue model.”
