Dutch Police Find a Sound Proof Torture Chamber Built Inside a Shipping Container and It's All Your Worst Nightmares Made Real
Source - Authorities in the Netherlands have discovered an apparent torture site hidden inside shipping containers, which were lined with sound-proofing material and filled with assumed torture devices, the country's National Prosecutor's Office has said.
Officers raided the site at Wouwse Plantage on the Dutch-Belgian border on June 22, arresting six men suspected of kidnapping and hostage taking.
They found six shipping containers which had been converted to what are believed to be "prison cells," as well as a stash of weaponry including pruning shears and loppers.
"In each of the cells, handcuffs were attached to the ceiling and floor, in order to be able to chain someone standing up with their arms raised," the statement said. "The rooms were finished with noise isolating panels and heat-insulating foil."
One of the units also contained a dental chair, with straps for feet and arms. ...
"The police found, among other things, pruning shears, loppers, a branch saw, scalpels, pliers, extra handcuffs, fingercuffs, tape, balaclavas, and black cotton bags that can be pulled over the head. During a search at a home in Rotterdam, 24 kilos of MDMA was also found."
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The containers were also fitted with cameras for remote monitoring.
Officers also found three stolen delivery vans, two BMWs, seven handguns and a Chinese variant of the AK-47. ...
[O]fficers were able to access an encrypted chat network -- EncroChat -- to track the group's movements and plans. "From this it could be deduced who the intended victims were," the statement said. ...
EncroChat ... was a "criminal marketplace" used by 60,000 people worldwide for coordinating the distribution of illicit goods.
Here's a police video of the inside of the container, though the officer doing the report is speaking Dutch and the subtitles are in IKEA or something. But check it out, if you're so inclined.
We're all guilty of using the hyperbole "worst thing imaginable" to describe things that, while awful, are not the worst things we can imagine. And the truly terrifying thing is to realize that the worst things you can possibly imagine don't come close to the horrors that occur in real life. Every day. Around the world.
I have a vivid memory from about 10 or 12 years ago of coming home late from a comedy gig and "Hostel" was on HBO. It's a well done, high quality horror movie. Eli Roth is a terrific director. Great premise with a lot of sharp social commentary. Attractive American college kids, traveling around Europe in the summer. Meet someone. Get rufied. Wake up tied to chairs in some abandoned warehouse where psychopathic creeps pay money to torture them to death. And Americans cost extra because Europeans will pay a premium because we suck. I respected the hell out of the job Roth did. As I vowed never to ever, ever, ever watch it again. Not ever. As I could barely sleep that night and try to put it out of my mind when loved ones travel abroad because it's so utterly plausible.
And now, with this? It's sounds more like "Hostel" is reality than merely plausible. Delivery vans. Luxury cars. Molly. A site used to exchange illegal goods and services. Torture devices. Remote cameras. I'm connecting a lot of dots here and maybe this was some thing international crime syndicates do to each other and their snitches. But it sounds for all the world like this was kidnapping people, drugging them, and charging evil freaks to watch strangers get tortured on the Dark Web. Or to do it themselves.
So God bless the Dutch police who put an end to this before there were more victims. And who put these purely evil, Gestapoesque, soulless wretches behind bars where not enough bad things can happen to them. I just hope for my sake my brain is never able to imagine anything worse than waking up cuffed to a dentist's chair in a foil-lined sound proofed box. Or I'll never be able to sleep again.