They are no longer surprised by an explosion or more in Vlaardingen, after a year in which, sometimes at intervals of months, ten bombs went off at the home, business premises or cars of the owner of a local plumbing company. Until Saturday, the damage was limited to broken windows, doors that flew off their frames, loose roof tiles and two cars that were torn to pieces.
But the latest explosion, around 1:45 am on Saturday night, resulted in injuries for the first time. After the impact, a fire broke out on the ground floor of a corner house on Wilhelminastraat. A resident was plucked from the roof of the house by the fire brigade. He and two other residents were admitted to hospital because they had smoke inhalation.
Nothing is yet known about the cause of the explosion. The police may become more aware of images recorded by surveillance cameras in front of the house. That installation was set up there after previous attacks against the 45-year-old plumber.
1. Which attacks have been committed?
The mysterious attacks started almost a year ago, on April 4, when one of his company cars was blown up at the plumber’s home on Greta Hofstralaan. The perpetrator or perpetrators could not miss the car. While most plumbers drive around in a white van, the Vlaardingen company’s fleet included two black Chrevolet Silverados, a heavy American pickup truck. On the company’s website, the cars can still be seen during a Sinterklaas parade, with Black Petes in the open truck.
Four days later, the second Silverado — dubbed the Uffel 5 — took to the air. It was parked on Koninginneweg, a stone’s throw from the plumber’s business premises, an eight-minute drive from his house.
Then it was quiet for eight months. Another series of explosions followed in December, in Greta Hofstralaan, Koninginneweg and Wilhelminastraat. At the latter address, a bomb went off in a garage of the plumbing company, right next to the house where the fire broke out last Saturday after an explosion.
After December 15, peace returned again, until new attacks in mid-February, ten days ago and last Saturday.
A common feature of the attacks: the bombs used are cobras, mortar bombs that are illegal in the Netherlands. Or it is ‘house craft’, according to the police spokesperson at Omroep Vlaardingen: ‘We also see that homemade explosives are being made. The flash powder is often removed from cobras.’
2. Who is the target?
The police have no idea of the motive behind the attacks. The plumber says he doesn’t know who is targeting him. He denies being involved in drug trafficking, as has been suggested by some media. The plumber is married and has two sons aged 7 and 13.
The company he runs has existed since 1976 and was founded by his father. This has put the company ‘well on the map in 30 years’. “I have worked in my father’s business from an early age and slowly took over the business from 2001,” the plumber writes on the company’s website. He took over the business in 2006, while his father stayed on as an advisor. In 2014, the company had about 15 employees.
The building in Wilhelminastraat, where a fire broke out on Saturday, served as a workshop for years. An image from Google Streetview, taken in March 2023, shows a facade sign with ‘Plumbing Company Vlaardingen’. That was painted over sometime afterwards, probably to keep attackers from being wiser.
The plumber previously told the weekly magazine EW: ‘I am not into drugs and I still have to work hard for my money. If I had done something wrong, I would turn myself in before my wife and children. They now live in tension.’ He does not think that the attacks are aimed at his person. “If they want me, they know where I sit twelve hours a day, with my office door open.”
Since Saturday, by order of the mayor, the plumber is no longer allowed to appear in the neighborhoods where his home is located, Holy Zuid, and his business premises, in Oostwijk. He had been staying in hotels for a while. The municipality previously decided to board up the buildings after attacks. Every time the restrictions were lifted, things went wrong again a short time later. Extra surveillance by the police, fences and immense boulders in front of the house, surveillance cameras, calls in the TV program Opsporing Verzocht: it has not helped so far.
3. Who are the suspects?
Six arrests have been made in the case. The police have not become much wiser. The suspects remain silent in all languages because they fear repercussions. The question is whether they know who is behind the attacks. It is more likely that they were recruited through the grapevine. Most of them have no criminal record, except for the 30-year-old Rotterdam resident who was arrested last year after the discovery of an explosive in a car on Greta Hofstralaan. According to the AD, he was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2014 for stabbing a man to death in Groningen during an argument.
The verdict in the case against him will be pronounced next week, just like against another Rotterdam resident. This N. (27), substitute gymnastics teacher, was arrested on December 12, an hour after an attack in Gretha Hofstralaan. A witness had noted the license plate number of a car in which the possible perpetrator got into. The car was registered to the defendant’s mother.
N. is accused of picking up the bomb in Maassluis and then driving to Vlaardingen with the bomber. N. was sentenced to thirty months in prison, six of which were conditional.
Another suspect is a 24-year-old man from Rotterdam, the suspected accomplice of the Rotterdam resident with a criminal record. He was arrested on December 24 in Gretha Hofstralaan, allegedly sleeping in a car in which the police found a fireworks bomb. Furthermore, a 17-year-old who is believed to be the December 12 bomber was arrested. A 19-year-old man from Strijen was arrested on February 20 with an explosive in a bag at the plumber’s home. A sixth detainee could not be linked to the Vlaardingen case.
Tags: Ten attacks addresses target saga surrounding Vlaardingen plumber
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