Urk Alderman resigns after son’s drug trafficking arrest

Geert Post, a SGP alderman in the municipality of Urk, is under fire for concealing that he works at his son’s transport company - a company that was recently discredited when Post’s 32-year-old son was arrested in the United Kingdom for trafficking over 400 kilograms of hard drugs. Aldermen are obliged to report all their activities, in order to avoid conflicts of interest. The Urk city council wants to know what exactly Post does at his son’s company, and why he concealed these activities. Post’s son was arrested in the UK last month after over 250 kilograms of cocaine and 170 kilograms of speed were found in his truck in Calais. He was on British territory at the time. The drugs were hidden under 35 carts of flowers. The British authorities estimate their value at about 15.7 million euros. The 32-year-old man from Urk claims he had nothing to do with the drugs, but he is still in custody and would face trail in a court of law on British soil. Geert Post has been an alderman in Urk since 2010. His portfolio includes Economic Affairs and Fisheries. In a new development to the arrest of his son, the alderman on the staunchly Protestant former fishing island of Urk resigned after his son was charged for drugs smuggling

and it emerged he too worked for his offspring’s transport company. Geert Post was an alderman on behalf of the fundamentalist Protestant party SGP and was the longest-serving official on the town council. He resigned after talks with other members of the town’s executive board and the mayor has instigated an integrity investigation. Post had failed to declare that he too worked for his son’s transport company JP Trans Beheer, which is against the island’s rules. He has denied any involvement in drugs and says his son, too, is innocent. The manner the drugs were concealed was deliberate to hide it from the security operatives; the drugs were hidden in 43 flower buckets taking roses and sunflowers from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom. According to report reaching us, the government’s regional crime information unit RIEC said Urk is a hotbed of crime, often involving entire families. In particular, the report said islanders are involved in cocaine smuggling, money laundering and in exploiting workers in the local fish processing industry. In 2018 the five strong crew of an Urk-based fishing boat were jailed for up to six years for their role in a drugs smuggling operation. By Janene Pieters