The man responsible for vigilante border controls between Groningen and Germany earlier this month has been arrested for attempting to take the law into his own hands.

Jan Huzen was picked up on Friday for his role in the “border checks” in which a group of locals in high visibility jackets flagged down cars crossing the border at night. They were, they say, looking for asylum seekers.

The Marechaussee, or military police, are the only people allowed to monitor border crossings. “This is why we are taking action,” the police agency said. “There is no option for doing it yourself.”

Justice minister David van Weel, who is now responsible for part of the asylum issue, said earlier that he understood the frustration of the vigilantes while at the same time urging them to stop.

Huzen, 54 and from Emmen, has a long history of activism. He told the NRC in an interview earlier this month that the border checks had “unfortunately” failed to find any asylum seekers “or dark people or something that looks like that”.