SITTARD - There is a relationship between the Limburg corruption affair, in which several officials have now been detained for weeks, and the underworld.
This emerges from the criminal file on the case. Tapped telephone conversations have revealed that the convicted drug criminal Christiaan van A. had frequent contact with former regional director Aart van der B. of the discredited company Janssen de Jong Infra due to the corruption affair.
According to the prosecution, Van A. - sentenced to three years in prison in a major drug, money laundering and fraud investigation - supplied a Fiat Barchetta with which civil servant Andy P. from Spijkenisse would have been bribed. Van A. had a transport and construction company, which also received assignments from Janssen de Jong Infra. Aart van der B. asked Van A., who also traded in used vehicles, if he could supply a car. The Fiat Barchetta would have been accepted by Andy P. in exchange for services to Janssen de Jong Infra.
The phone tapes were one of the leads for the current corruption and bribery investigation, called "Cleveland. Van der B. was found to have contacts with officials in Limburg. This information was added to the results of an investigation started in July 2006, called 'Coropuna,' into alleged malpractice and fraudulent actions by officials of several Limburg municipalities and employees of Janssen de Jong Infra. These two investigations led to theCleveland investigation.
Janssen de Jong board chairman Eric Krul says he knows nothing about a link to a drug case. "Van der B. was fired because of alleged malversations, not because he was a suspect in a drug case." To what malversations Van der B. was allegedly guilty,Krul would not say.
