Hidden weapons found near primary school in Overasselt

Military police have found multiple weapons hidden near a primary school in Overassel following last week’s gun attack on a property in the Gelderland village, which resulted in the murder of one man and serious injury on two police officers.

Investigations have been ongoing since the attack, with 35 people arrested – all but two of whom are being held for murder or manslaughter – and extensive searches in the surrounding areas. It is suspected the attack was part of a feud over cocaine dealing linked with a resident of the village, who has been targetted before.

Police would not say how many weapons were found near the school or other details. In the day after the attack, dozens of men – who were seen heavily armed on CCTV footage – were caught hiding in the countryside, on the motorways and near rail stations as they fled the scene.

After the events unfolded, a video surfaced on social media of masked men holding automatic weapons and reading out a threat message to Jan G. Jr., the Overassel resident linked to the attack. They said he owed a “Belgian friend” 1,283 kilograms of “goods” and had to return it within 12 hours or they would kill his family.

They spoke in a heavy Spanish accent and said the goods had never left Spain as they were supposed to.

On Tuesday, Spanish police intercepted a shipment of exactly 1,283 kilograms of cocaine in a transport truck carrying coconuts. It is not yet clear whether the two cases are connected.

The shock of the attack on Overassel pushed justice minister David van Weel to warn that “unprecedented” violence is occurring due to international drugs smuggling, though he dismissed the idea of the Netherlands becoming a so-called “narco state”.

Reports of gunshots in nearby Nijmegen on Monday night drew in heavily armed police, who closed off several streets before determining no shots were fired. A relative of Jan G. Jr, who lives in the city, was moved for his own protection.