Our cabbie pointed out a canal bridge as we trundled through the narrow streets of Amsterdam.
"Under there," he said, "they used to put prisoners in cells and leave them to be eaten by rats."
The nine British fugitives the cops are hunting in Holland will be spared that fate, but the Dutch police don't mess about.
They gave us some footage which shows the arrest of a British robber suspect a few months ago and it shows a paramiltary squad storming the guy's hideout with machine guns.
That's just after they've blown his door in with explosives.
Amsterdam may be on its way to becoming the new Costa del Crime - and the weather this week certainly rivals Spain - but the Dutch cops are not slow in responding to appeals for help from Crimestoppers and our own Serious Organised Crime Agency.
In the past three years, 83 British fugitives have been arrested in Holland, most of them in the Amsterdam area.
Spain and Holland are the big drugs gateways into Europe (and so the UK) and I guess even a criminal on the run needs to keep his hand in.
UK criminal element have probably participated in the soft drug, marijuanha cafe scene that abounds your thinking about keeping their hand in as major drug dealers would appear gross speculation Martin. The local "aannemers" [entrepreneurs] together with the chinese mafia have it all stitched up and I am sure would react to any outside interference.
That said the majority of major or minor criminals that arrive can easily blend into a very cosmopolitan folk. English spoken everywhere [most TV is English with subtitles for the locals which means from 12 years of age, most can speak it] and a large immigrant population would benefit the UK's foreign trash that escapes there. [Don't recognise any of them pictured but am seldom now in Amsterdam]
Sad to think that you will be getting them back, but with Amsterdam prisons today resembling 5 * hotels for the inmates, they might eventually receive their due sentences.
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