There's lots of Dutch from the settled community involved in organized crime as well. I'd wager to say that next to the UK (England and Scotland) and Ireland, the Netherlands is one of the rare northwestern European countries that breeds a ton of indigenous outfits that are involved in the underworld on a large international scale.

Never knew Van Dijk was actually from Tilburg.
Henk Ebben from Schiedam is from the settled community, right?

Is "Dikke Peter" a traveller as well?
I always assumed he was just a local Limburg guy who made it big in the underworld. Nevertheless, the guy really isn't one to be crossed.

Even though "kampers" play a very prominent role, traditional OC in the Netherlands isn't really limited to them. There's lots of Dutch from the settled community involved in organized crime as well. I'd wager to say that next to the UK (England and Scotland) and Ireland, the Netherlands is one of the rare northwestern European countries that breeds a ton of indigenous outfits that are involved in the underworld on a large international scale.

basically like brad Pitt in the movie SNATCH

I wonder why that is so . After all one can point to the ( still lasting ) marginalization of certain segments of the British Isle's indigenous lower/working class as a main factor for the existence of so many indigenous British organized crime groups , however I'm not aware of a similar phenomenon with respect to the settled Dutch lower/working class .

If anything the Netherlands was always ( and I imagine still is ) a more tolerant/less socially stratified society than the UK , why makes the large amount of settled Dutch gangsters seem a bit puzzling to me .

I suppose one can bring up the fact of the Netherlands being an important smuggling center though ...

There definitely is noticeable poverty and a lot of the "pastime activities" are remarkably similar (both love a bit of football hooliganism for instance). Also historically, as with the British, the Dutch always loved to trade.

While there's definitely not the abrasive "us vs. them" mentality going on with the indigenous Dutch working class community as there is with the British, I feel there are also quite a bit of parallels between the British and the Dutch in this regard. There definitely is noticeable poverty and a lot of the "pastime activities" are remarkably similar (both love a bit of football hooliganism for instance). Also historically, as with the British, the Dutch always loved to trade.
Another thing is that a more "organized" form of crime already existed in these countries way back; the Dutch "penoze" tradition goes back a couple of hundred years and reasonably organized gangs were formed in the British Isles as soon as large town settlements were being built. This is something most other Western European countries never really had. Though I'm not sure how much I can count "tradition" as a factor, because for instance Germany used to have the "ringvereine" yet over there indigenous OC (if you don't count the occasional German biker) has been dead ever since.

While there's definitely not the abrasive "us vs. them" mentality going on with the indigenous Dutch working class community as there is with the British, I feel there are also quite a bit of parallels between the British and the Dutch in this regard. There definitely is noticeable poverty and a lot of the "pastime activities" are remarkably similar (both love a bit of football hooliganism for instance). Also historically, as with the British, the Dutch always loved to trade.
Another thing is that a more "organized" form of crime already existed in these countries way back; the Dutch "penoze" tradition goes back a couple of hundred years and reasonably organized gangs were formed in the British Isles as soon as large town settlements were being built. This is something most other Western European countries never really had. Though I'm not sure how much I can count "tradition" as a factor, because for instance Germany used to have the "ringvereine" yet over there indigenous OC (if you don't count the occasional German biker) has been dead ever since.

@2a

Traditionally yes, but as of recent years the poverty rate of Germany has increased to the point that it has eclipsed the Netherlands'. I think the poverty rate in Germany is about 15% nowadays, which is more than the one of for instance Albania.

In Germany it seems to be that a lot of people from a foreign background are living below the poverty line, even though honestly I don't know how accurate this is. For instance you got extended Lebanese families with thousands of members of which the majority are reportedly living in extreme poverty (and many of them admittedly do live in small bedroom-sized apartments somewhere in a Berlin or NRW working class neighborhood) while actually those dudes have a truckload of money.

It's the same with the Netherlands. Any "kamper" is registered as "poor", despite the fact that some of them are able to wipe clean their ass with €500 banknotes if they want to. You got Moroccan or Curaçaoan guys living in council flats despite the fact that they are actually filthy rich.

It's all hard to tell sometimes.

Yup that often seems to be the case the world over , especially when it comes to criminals ...

I hope I'm not tiring you with all these questions , but are there any good English language books about the Dutch underworld that you'd recommend ? There seems to be a dearth of said material , which is why I'm asking .

Anyways thanks again for all the information .