The seaside town of Katwijk, which is run by an all-Christian council executive including the fundamentalist SGP, has been cracking down on the use of soft drugs by teenagers, broadcaster Nos says on Wednesday.

Police have used telephone taps and observation teams in an effort to establish who is selling drugs in the town, which has a population of 63,000, Nos says.

The result has been six arrests and 85 youths have been referred to social workers via the Halt scheme, Nos reports.

‘The results are very disturbing,’ mayor Jos Wienen is quoted by Nos as saying. ‘Drugs are dangerous and youngsters should not have access to them. Drugs are banned.’

Nos reporter Mattijs van de Wiel, who was at the news conference, said the impression given by the police chief was that ‘a major drugs cartel had been busted’. ‘That is not the case,’ Van der Wiel said. ‘The council wants to clamp down on the sale of soft drugs to the under 18s.’

Local health board figures show that drugs use by Katwijk youngsters is no worse than in any other town. Nor does the town have any coffee shops where small quantities of soft drugs can be bought by the over-18s.