Oh, the humanity !
Amsterdam, Netherlands - Three tons of hashish went up in smoke Friday, incinerated by Dutch authorities after a van carrying the illicit cargo crashed and scattered it across the road.
Detectives were hunting the van's driver and a passenger who fled the scene, leaving behind the wrecked vehicle and its $20 million cargo.
"It's not something you see every day," police spokesman Hielke Vogelzang said, adding that police were tracing the owner of the van, but "it may be stolen or leased."
The crash happened during the morning commute on a highway outside the town of Avenhorn, about 20 miles north of Amsterdam, police said.
Vogelzang said it was unknown whether the vehicle's occupants were injured, but "we're confident we'll catch up to them sooner or later."
Police said the van was heading toward Amsterdam when its driver lost control for unknown reasons. They said eyewitnesses saw the van hit a barrier, flip and clip another car before coming to rest. The two occupants ran away.
Packages of hash were scattered around the area, local media reported, and Vogelzang said that hundreds more were found stacked on wooden pallets inside the van.
Marijuana and hash are technically illegal in the Netherlands, but under the country's tolerance policy, police do not arrest anybody for possession of small amounts.
It is sold openly in licensed shops - which, paradoxically, have no way of legally acquiring their chief product.
"Well, here it comes, ladies and gentlemen; we're out now, outside of the head shop. And what a great sight it is, a thrilling one, just a marvelous sight. It's coming down the highway, pointed directly towards us and toward Avenhorn. The mighty diesel motor just roared, the tires biting into the road and throwing it back into a gale-like whirlpool. No wonder this great van can travel down the highway at such a speed, with that powerful motor in it."
"It burst into flames ! Get out of the way ! Get out of the way ! Get this, Charlie ! Get this, Charlie ! It's fire and it's crashing ! It's crashing terrible ! Oh, my ! Get out of the way, please ! It's burning, bursting into flames and hash is burning with it, and all the folks agree that this is terrible. This is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world ! Oh, it's crashing...oh, four or five hundred feet into the sky, and it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There's smoke, and there's flames, now, and the hash is crashing to the ground, not quite to the barrier...Oh, the humanity, and all the customers screaming around here !"
"I told you...I can't even talk to people...around there. It's -- I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage, and everybody can hardly breathe and talk...I, I'm sorry. Honest, I can hardly breathe. I'm going to step inside where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. I -- Listen folks, I'm going to have to stop for a minute, because I've lost my voice...This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed....."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment