2024-01-16 20:58:48
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 2 hours ago, Updated 2 hours ago
Twenty-two people were arrested in Belgium on Tuesday for drug trafficking, leading to 45 searches. Tinnakorn / stock.adobe.com
Twenty-two people, including three police officers, were arrested Tuesday in Belgium as part of an investigation into the drug scene which led to 45 searches, the federal police announced in a press release. During this vast operation, which took place mainly in the Brussels and Antwerp sectors, “money, luxury vehicles and a handgun were seized», Indicates the police.
More than 350 police officers were mobilized to arrest the suspects, “some of which are potentially dangerous“. Several companies were also targeted by the searches, the press release added, without further details. The investigation, which began in February 2023 “following several serious crimes» linked to the drug scene, «was able to demonstrate the existence of drug trafficking at several levels, from local deals to import/export, and to suspect the involvement of certain individuals in settling scores using firearms», Specifies the police.
Trafic international
Investigators managed to decrypt several phones using Sky ECC, messaging popular with criminals whose decryption has enabled raids once morest drug traffickers in Europe since 2021. This analysis highlighted “the importation of cocaine via the port of Antwerp», specifies the police, who add that “certain protagonists are suspected of having wanted to export cocaine to England using helicopters».
A mega-trial began in December in Brussels, where more than 120 defendants involved in international cocaine and cannabis trafficking appeared, confused in large part thanks to the decryptions of the Encrochat and Sky ECC messaging services.
In recent years, seizures have gone from record to record in Antwerp, which has become the first gateway to Europe for cocaine produced in South America, once morest a backdrop of increasing consumption on the Old Continent.
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