The Dutch online drugs shop Funcaps did not just sell dangerous substances. It sold them with discount deals and sample packs, like a legitimate business. No package inserts.
No usage instructions. Just pills and powders, shipped to customers who could not have known what risks they carried.
Now prosecutors say they can prove 18 people died after taking those substances. That number, presented Thursday in a Zwolle court, is the result of a long and narrowing investigation. It began with 58 possible deaths.
Then 27. Then back up to 58.
Now 18, with four more still under examination. The case against the site’s Dutch owners, Jord van W, 31, and Stefan P, 30, started during the pandemic. They began selling fake pills in Belgium.
Prosecutors say the two men did not understand Belgian law. They did not understand exactly what they were selling, either. Health risks were left to the customers.
A Belgian appeal court has already sentenced them to prison terms of up to three years, with 18 months unconditional. Fines and seizure of suspected proceeds were also ordered.
That case is now before Belgium’s Court of Cassation. The Dutch case has grown since the men first appeared in court in 2025. At that time, prosecutors put the possible death toll at 27.
It later rose to a possible 58 before being narrowed to the 18 the department now says it can stand up in court. Funcaps sold a range of substances.
Bromazolam, a sedative. O-DSMT, an opioid painkiller. 2F-ketamine, an anaesthetic. These are not everyday drugs.
They are designer compounds, often made in labs, with little known about their long-term effects. The products came with no information about dosage or risks. Prosecutors say the fact that they can prove a link between the substances sold by Funcaps and the deaths of 18 people is a significant breakthrough.
It means they have hard evidence, not just suspicion. That evidence will be tested in court.
Funcaps is one of several fake-medicine and designer-drug operations under scrutiny in the Netherlands. This trade has recently been traced in part to chemicals imported from India. The Netherlands has become a hub for such operations, with online shops selling substances that fall into legal grey areas or outright illegality.
The case raises questions about how these operations are able to function. The men began selling in Belgium during the pandemic, a time when many people were looking for ways to cope with stress, anxiety, or boredom.
The discount deals and sample packs made the substances seem harmless, even normal. But they were not harmless. Eighteen families now know that.
Four more may soon learn it. The investigation continues.
