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AMSTERDAM - Puzzled witnesses to a road crash on a Dutch motorway realised why the occupants of a stricken van fled so quickly when police arrived and found hashish worth 15 million euros ($29.05 million) in the vehicle.
A police spokeswoman said the van contained 3,000kg of hashish and was heavily overloaded, although police did not know whether this had caused the crash on Friday.
"A van-driver heading to Amsterdam lost control of his vehicle and it tipped over... Witnesses were confused as to why two people got out and ran away even though no one was hurt in the accident," she added.
The hashish would be destroyed immediately, she said.
Soft drugs are legally banned in the Netherlands but under a policy of "tolerance", buyers are allowed to have less than 5 grammes of cannabis in their possession.
Government-regulated coffeeshops which sell cannabis can keep stocks of up to 500 grammes.
But they need to buy bigger stocks to supply smokers and so sometimes turn to illegal suppliers.
- REUTERS
