International criminal gangs are stealing tractors from the Netherlands and transporting them to other European countries such as Poland and Romania, police and agricultural organisations have warned.

The Midden-Nederland police division said there had been “a wave of tractor thefts” since last October, with two or three vehicles a week disappearing from rural provinces such as Groningen, Overijssel, Flevoland and Noord-Brabant.

Police suspect that the thefts are the work of organised gangs based in Eastern Europe because similar trends have been detected in Belgium and Germany. A trailer containing several agricultural vehicles was stopped at the German-Polish border in the autumn.

Gaby de Ruiter, of agricultural sector organisation LTO, said the thieves were highly professional. “The only thing they leave behind are tyre marks,” she told AD.nl. “We are warning everyone who will listen, but it hasn’t stopped.”

“More cameras needed”

Michiel Spriensma, of Groningen-based tractor dealer GroeNoord, said his company had lost three brand-new machines in November, worth €100,000 each, that were later tracked to Romania.

Flevoland has become a favourite destination for thieves, partly because there are relatively few numberplate recognition cameras on the province’s motorways.

Moreno van Loenhout of commercial safety group Platform Veilig Ondernemen urged police to install more cameras in Flevoland. “These cameras are a very good way of filtering out road users who only appear in rural areas at suspicious times,” he said.