“When I started this job, I learned a lot about myself and I learned to speak about my problems but also speak about things that I had to deal with, because I saw that it helped the youth understand themselves better.”

Haruun (left) and Mustafa (centre) work for a government-funded street coach program that aims to deter vulnerable young people from getting involved with organised crime. Source: SBS / Will Reid

Haruun doesn’t want to seem like the police or authorities. Along with his colleague Mustafa, he engages in casual banter with the local youth about where they’ve been and where they’re going in an attempt to build their trust.

“There are so many drug dealers here,” one boy told them. “Young people, from 12 years old. I will see it maybe five times a week, young people dealing.”

A harsh upbringing

Born in Somalia, Haruun moved to the Netherlands in his early teens on a protection visa. Without his family, he moved from sponsor to sponsor before ending up in the boarding house with other boys his age.

Drug dealing has been taking place over encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram and Snapchat. Source: SBS / Will Reid

“I never met my dad when I was a child. He left at the age of two. My mum had eight kids. She had to raise them by herself. Four of them got killed back in Africa,” he said.

Being an unaccompanied minor, his life had already intersected with shadier elements in the Netherlands. But this event launched him headfirst into a new world.

This steady job and clear purpose has helped him stay on the straight and narrow.

Dutch drugs policy

In 2021, Dutch investigative journalist and crime reporter Peter Rudolf de Vries was assassinated on an Amsterdam street.

Prominent Dutch crime reporter and presenter Peter R. de Vries was shot in the head in July 2021 and died several days later in a hospital. Three years later, a Dutch court sentenced three men to 28 years in prison for his murder. Source: Getty / BSR Entertainment/Gentle Look

In 2024, drug-related crimes in the Netherlands hit a record high of over 14,000 cases. Much of the violence stems from a web of rival gangs operating in the Netherlands, known collectively as the Mocro Maffia.

The far-right Freedom Party (PVV), which pulled out of the right-leaning coalition, leading to the government’s collapse earlier this month, blames the problem on high levels of immigration.

“In my opinion, what the government is doing wrong is putting all the migrants in one corner by saying they’re all like that.”

Youth at the centre of violent crime

Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, says minors now show up in 70 per cent of Europe’s black markets — from drugs to trafficking, cybercrime and hired violence.

“It mostly goes via Snapchat. You just add some dealers and you chat and make a deal.”

Stefan shows a ‘pony pack’ — a small, folded paper packet usually containing cocaine. They are being left by drug dealers in residential areas. Source: SBS / Will Reid

The Snapchat messaging app enables dealers to make contact without being traced because chats are removed immediately, or within 24 hours.

No corner is safe

“In the past, we had people who were 18, 19, 20 years old. Now we see drug dealers who are 14, 15, and 16 years old,” Rudy said.

Community police officers Stefan van Ellinkhuizen and Rudy Dubbeldam say that drug dealers are getting younger. Source: SBS / Will Reid

Stefan says there are unmistakable signs of minors being recruited into the illicit trade.

Yet solutions remain out of reach.