That's called a hell of a catch.
About forty people were arrested on Tuesday as part of a police operation targeting international drug trafficking and coordinated by Europol.
The arrests took place simultaneously in six European countries, including thirty in Belgium and "a dozen abroad", announced the Belgian federal prosecutor's office.
The prosecution evokes a total of 49 searches in Belgium and "around 60" others in Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Croatia.
The targeted network is particularly active in cocaine trafficking from South America.
It involves traffickers from Eastern Europe established in the Brussels region as well as "nationals from southern Europe, belonging to the Limburg mafia milieu", from the province of Limburg bordering the Netherlands to the north of Belgium.
Criminal organizations “are no longer exclusively family or clan-based”
The investigation in Belgium started at the end of 2020: during a search in the Brussels region, the Belgian police discovered "a large quantity of acetone, several kilos of cannabis as well as counterfeit police clothing", underlines the press release. .
The Belgian judicial authorities then learned that this network of traffickers was already under investigation in Spain, which led to intelligence sharing between the two countries.
In 2021, adds the federal prosecutor's office, "contacts have been identified in several South American countries (Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay)".
For the transport of drugs in Europe, in addition to container ships passing through the ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam, Le Havre and Hamburg, "various means were used: vehicles with caches, transport company, use of cargo planes or private jets," the statement said.
This file illustrates the “agility of criminal organizations” which “are no longer exclusively family or clan-based” but operate as “joint ventures (…), on the model of classic commercial companies”, continues the federal prosecution.
Nearly 90 tons of cocaine were seized in 2021 in the port of Antwerp, a new record, according to the authorities.
Belgium has become the main gateway to Europe for this drug.
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Europe
Police
Belgium
Cocaine
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Drug traffic
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