Confusion over how much money the Dutch state paid back to a convicted drugs smuggler 14 years ago increased on Tuesday when justice minister Ivo Opstelten said he had been unable to trace any documents proving the transaction.

The deal to refund convicted drugs smuggler Cees H was approved by Fred Teeven, who was then public prosecutor and is now Opstelten’s number two at the justice ministry.

The deal, which was kept secret from the tax authorities, hit the headlines last week when H’s lawyer at the time said his client had been paid back five million guilders, not 1.25 million guilders as claimed by Opstelten.

Questions

Answering MPs’ questions on Tuesday Opstelten wrote that he is unable to say exactly how much cash the state paid into a convicted drug dealer’s bank account in 2000 but that he calculates the figure to be 1.25 million guilders.

There are no bank receipts for the transaction and banks are only required to keep such information for seven years, Opstelten said. Officials are still trying to track down documents relating to the case.

Opstelten said on Tuesday that the public prosecution department had sequestered around five million guilders in assets from drugs lord Cees H – including property and jewellery – but this had fallen in value to around two million guilders by the time a deal was reached to make him pay 750,000 guilders to the state.

The fall in value was due to the sale of a property in Belgium which had been sequestered by a third party, the minister said.

The prosecution department was unable to prove the assets had been obtained illegally and so most of the money was returned to H.

Evidence

According to H’s lawyers, some five million guilders was paid back to H via a Luxemburg bank account, effectively laundering the money. Piet Doedens, who was H’s lawyer at the time, told the Volkskrant last week he has bank details but that his client will not allow them to be published.

Cees H was one of the leaders of a smuggling network known as Octobpus which brought tons of cannabis from Pakistan into the Netherlands.

Opstelten said again on Tuesday the deal struck by Teeven was in line with the law of the day and there was no question of money laundering because it could not be proved the money had been obtained by illegal means.

MPs said they needed time to study his answers before deciding if Opstelten has cleared up the mystery but some are already calling for a public inquiry, the Volkskrant reports.