2023-11-10 16:22:09
Cocaine featured and a bit of everything
“There’s a little bit of everything”, explained last September the National Drugs Commissioner, Ine Van Wymersch. The former king’s prosecutor at the Hal-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office, appointed national drug commissioner last February, recalled: “There is cocaine. Here in Belgium, it is mainly Albanian clans with Italian and French links who are responsible for preparing cocaine for domestic consumption or for export to the rest of Europe. Then there are also Moroccan clans who are more focused on cannabis. We have a little crack or heroin. But to a lesser extent“.
Cocaine smuggling is today characterized by less structured criminal organizations, fierce competition between (often young) traffickers and a long supply chain with multiple stages. These particularities have created numerous risks of conflict, thus contributing to the wave of violence which mainly affects the main European ports. Additionally, the increasing accessibility of guns among criminals has expanded drug-related shootings from high-level conflicts into socially vulnerable neighborhoods, where young people seek to gain status.
To fight more effectively against the importation of drugs via the port of Antwerp, the municipal authorities have set up a new “taskforce“called”Kali-team” was born as part of the Stroomplan, a plan which brings together under one roof federal police, public prosecutor’s office, social inspection and customs.
Nils Duquet, director of the Flemish Peace Institute, underlines “that drug-related shootings have repercussions far beyond those directly involved, also undermining trust in the rule of law“He calls for the urgency of “combat the circulation of illicit weapons, a political priority for Europe for years, but which remains to be fully assumed by Belgium” he said.
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