At the beginning of March a van carrying illicit cargo in Amsterdam crashed and scattered it across the road. Three tonnes of hashish went up in smoke when the Dutch authorities incinerated the illicit cargo from the crashed van.

Detectives hunted for the van’s driver and passenger who fled the scene after the accident. It’s unknown if the occupants were injured. It’s estimated that the pair left behind about $23.5 million dollars worth of goods including the van. Police were busy tracing the van’s ownership but feared that it might have been stolen or leased.

The accident happened during the morning rush hour on a highway outside of the town of Avenhorn, about 30 kilometres north of Amsterdam.

The driver lost control of the vehicle as he or she was heading towards Amsterdam. Witnesses watched the van hit a barrier, flip and crash into another car before coming to a rest. Packages of hash were strewn over the area, and hundreds more were found stacked on wooden pallets in the van.

Marijuana and hash are technically illegal in the Netherlands, but under the country’s tolerance policy, police do not arrest anybody for possession of small amounts. It is sold openly in licensed shops, which, paradoxically, have no way of legally acquiring their chief product.