Belgium can shortly become a "drug state", warns Bart Willocx, president of the Antwerp Court of Appeals, and Guido Vermeiren, lawyer General of the Antwerp and Limburg regions. In their opinion, the escalation of corruption, force and intimidation are contributing to expanding drug crime, which is increasingly destabilising society.
In an interview with the British paper The Guardian, justice Willocx stressed that global drug crime is driving immense money. – The amount of resources allocated to influence, corrupt and bribe people is so large that it poses a real threat to the stableness of our society – he said.
He added that the Belgian State is facing a serious challenge and that, in order to effectively combat drug gangs, it must importantly increase expenditure on staff and another resources.
Prosecutor Vermeiran besides warned against the expanding scale of the problem. As he stated, Belgium “becomes a country with a immense scale of corruption and many threats.”
The port of Antwerp is presently 1 of the major European cocaine smuggling sites. According to Europol, over 70% of cocaine entering the European marketplace passes through ports in Antwerp and Rotterdam. Only in 2023, the police seized 121 tons of this drug.
In consequence to increased controls of smuggling networks, they began to change tactics – they push drugs into smaller ports and improve their hiding methods. As a result, in 2024 the amount of cocaine seized in Antwerp decreased to 44 tonnes.
Lawyers indicate that a billion-dollar underground economy is developing in parallel by criminal networks operating from Dubai to South America.
Drug mafias can pay the port individual more than EUR 250,000 to decision 1 container. This is an unacceptable proposal due to the fact that refusal frequently means intimidation or violent repression. – They received letters and pictures of their children. There were besides attacks on their homes utilizing homemade explosives – said D.A. Vermeiran.
Gangs bring young people to work in ports and then force them to cooperate. Even children aged 13 are recruited for smuggling tasks.
In 2025, 1 of the judges in Antwerp wrote to the Justice Committee demanding urgent action to prevent the country from becoming a "drug state". another judges and prosecutors are now besides giving akin warnings. Investigators are complaining about a increasing scale of violence, including shootings, kidnappings, tortures and money laundering. For example, in 2024 the effort to bargain more than 1500 tonnes of cocaine confiscated from the customs warehouse by armed attackers was thwarted. Drug mafias besides planned to kidnap the Home Secretary. In 2025 they led to many shootings.
Police and medical personnel are to be bribed or intimidated to supply confidential information, including the address of the judges. Even criminals in prison proceed to coordinate gang activity utilizing smuggled devices.
In view of the threat, the Belgian authorities must supply constant protection for many judges, police officers and politicians. justice Willocx admitted that this active tremendous sacrifices. – You gotta leave home and household overnight and then live in a place that nobody knows. He described it.
According to any observers, any judges, fearing for their own safety, effort to avoid harsh sentences against criminals, pointing to procedural errors. Fear for their own lives and their loved ones, as well as the request to live under constant protection, makes the force on justice rise.
Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden announced the allocation of an additional billion euros to fight drug crime by 2029. There are besides fresh solutions in the plans, including the anonymization of the judicial act, which are intended to reduce the impact of drug mafias on justice.
Source: brusselssingnal.eu
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