Drugs criminals are laundering money using fraudulent mortgages across the country, not just in Amsterdam, prompting the Dutch banking association NVB to ask for stricter measures, the Financieele Dagblad said on Monday.

The ease with which criminal networks used falsified mortgage papers in a large-scale scheme to buy up hundreds of houses in the Amsterdam region, made the existence of other networks across the country very likely, Amsterdam police chief Pim Jansonius told the paper.

Jansonius said the total number of houses bought via fraud may be as high as 8,000.

“We see people who were in the drugs trade graduate to mortgage fraud. It’s a good way to launder money and it’s less dangerous. The chances of getting caught are also much smaller,” he said.

The Amsterdam investigation revealed a network consisting of six mortgage advisory firms, financial services companies and other real estate agents.

The mortgage advisors would file bogus mortgage requests with banks based on fake credentials, such as payslips and annual accounts at least twice a month. In total, police estimate 800 houses were bought this way since 2018.

Banks are not equipped to pick out criminal mortgage requests, said Eelco Dubbeling, director of the Dutch banking association NVB. “It’s very worrying. It’s time we closed the door to criminals. We need to discuss that with the new justice minister,” he said.

Another six regional police forces are currently investigating similar scams, while a unit in Noord-Holland discovered dozens of fraudulent mortgages in the names of one-man businesses, such as cleaners and window cleaners. In The Hague, a mortgage fraud ring led to suspected drug criminals.

To prevent mortgage fraud, systemic faults in the mortgage system should be tackled, Jansonius said.

“Banks should be allowed to check with the tax office if the income information provided by the client is correct, which is illegal at the moment,” he said.

He also said chamber of commerce registrations should be vetted more stringently. “At the moment a criminal can set up a company from his cell and make a mortgage request half an hour later,” Jansonius said.