Five men have been arrested in connection with an investigation into the illegal trade in nitrous oxide, better known as laughing gas.

The men, aged 25 to 29, come from Eindhoven, Veldhoven, Boxtel and Helmond, police said on Wednesday afternoon. Further arrests have not been ruled out.

The police have seized bank accounts, a car, cash and several expensive watches during a string of raids. They also found several hundred laughing gas cylinders stored in a warehouse.

Laughing gas has been classed as a class 1 drug since 2023, but it can easily be bought online. The gang are thought to have used the website tijger040.nl to sell the canisters to thousands of people in the Eindhoven area. That website has since been taken off line.

Research by the Trimbos institute shows that over 37% of Dutch partygoers use laughing gas on a regular basis and that young adults are the most likely to do so. In some cases, chronic use of laughing gas can deplete vitamin B12, which in turn can damage the spinal cord.