NOS News - Domestic - today, 06:29 - Updated today, 09:41
'Neat shed, they may scream': demand known in torture container case
Today, the Public Prosecutor's Office issues a penalty demand against the group that allegedly set up the containers, in the countryside between Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom. Twelve suspects are on trial, including the suspected principal: a 50-year-old Rotterdam man nicknamed Piet Costa.
Who is this suspect? Why would he have had the torture containers built? And who should have been locked up there? These are questions that investigators, crime journalists and podcast creators have recently been throwing themselves into.
Champagne Cooler
Main suspect Roger P., alias Piet Costa, is known as a ringleader in the Dutch cocaine trade. Yet until his arrest in 2020 he managed to remain largely in the shadows. He owes his nickname to his regular stay in Costa Rica.
That he is deeply involved in crime is evident from his lifestyle, according to the prosecution. He commuted back and forth between the Netherlands and South America, drove very expensive cars, stayed in luxury apartments and had a lot of money, but no income. In a house where he stayed, there were bottles of liquor worth thousands of euros each. In a champagne cooler there was 15,000 euros of 'pocket money'.
" Neat shed. Everything insulated. They may scream."
Pete Costa in intercepted message
Piet Costa's name surfaces when police manage to crack a number of messaging services and intercept the communications of criminals. The police read along with messages that seem to be about large consignments of drugs and see pictures passing by of blocks of cocaine. The suspicion is that P. is the organizer of this drug smuggling.
In the spring of 2020, while reading along with the criminal message traffic, the police also make a very different, chilling discovery. Pete Costa is sent photos of a shed, shipping containers, insulation material and a chair with straps. "Three times insulated," the sender writes along with it. "Even though you are standing next to it you don't hear anything."
Piet Costa, according to the judiciary, sends the photos again to someone else: "Would you like to see our shed space for about ten men. Neat shed. Everything isolated. They may scream."
Great danger
It is clear to the police that there is great danger, that containers have apparently been set up to lock people up and torture them. The man who allegedly sent the photos is 41-year-old Robin van O., a former gym owner from Utrecht. Through him the police managed to trace the shed in Wouwse Plantage.
Cameras were secretly placed inside. This way they managed to keep an eye on the construction of the 'underworld prison'. The police intervened when the building was nearly finished.
Secateurs and scalpels
In the warehouse the police find seven isolated containers, six of which have been furnished as cells and one as a torture chamber. In the camera-guarded cells, shackles hang from the ceiling; on the floor is a chemical toilet. In the torture chamber there is an old dentist's chair with straps and there are pruning shears, scalpels and pliers, as well as a finger clamp, saw and gas burner.
The shocking images are released two weeks later and are world news. They provide instant inspiration for scriptwriters: the prison container recurs almost one on one in the popular [Dutch TV-]series
Mocro Maffia.
Police also found bags to pull over someone's head and an "operating table" on which people could be tied. A mortar tub was intended for waterboarding prisoners, according to the prosecution.
In addition, police discovered the base of operations of a "criminal arrest team": stolen fast cars, weapons, bulletproof vests, police uniforms and flashing lights. The suspicion is that targets would be kidnapped by fake cops, and then locked up in Wouwse Plantage.
CEO of a drug company
That same day Roger P. is arrested. Simultaneously with the case of the underworld prison, a second investigation into the smuggling of cocaine is underway. Piet Costa is also the main suspect in that case. The prosecution describes him as the "CEO" of a drug company.
He is said to have imported thousands of kilos of coke and to have made preparations for the import of a mega batch of 25,000 kilos. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, reports indicate that he wanted to bring this enormous consignment from South America to Europe in one go using his own boat.
Last month the Public Prosecutor demanded almost 18 years in prison against Roger P. for cocaine trafficking. Every time he had to appear in court, he was hiding in a hooded sweater and would say nothing, neither about drug trafficking, nor about the containers.
Robbed of tens of millions
According to the prosecution, he had the dreary torture prison set up because of a high-profile conflict in the underworld. Various media reported that Piet Costa was allegedly robbed of many tens of millions of euros.
The man allegedly behind this was described by a witness as the "Willem Endstra of Dubai," i.e. an underworld banker. He would be one of the people who should have ended up in the torture container.
The conflict seems to have gotten way out of hand. Several shootings and liquidations are reportedly related to the feud. "I'm not normally one for this department," Pete Costa wrote, according to police. "But now there are some ... I hope I can torture them."
The twelve suspects in the torture container case are said to have had different roles. Some are said to have rolled up their sleeves in the shed as handymen; others are said to have arranged matters in the background. Most of them do not want to say anything.
Only Robin van O., the man who would have coordinated the construction and would have kept Piet Costa informed, says that the containers were never meant to be actually used. Everything would have been just for show.
With a video, Van O. tried earlier in court to show that "character assassination" had been committed against him. Among other things, he wanted to illustrate with baby and youth photos that he is not an unscrupulous criminal, but a very ordinary person.
Robin van O. is the only one who will not be given a penalty demand today. The case against him has been postponed because he is seriously ill.
Translated with
www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)