Antwerp
Eleven-year-old girl shot and killed in suspected crime in drug milieu
Police officers stand guard at the crime scene in Antwerp’s Merksem district
© Kristof Van Accom / BELGA / DPA
An eleven-year-old girl died in a crime in the port city of Antwerp. The girl died after unknown gunmen shot at a garage door. A connection with the Belgian drug scene is suspected.
An eleven-year-old girl died after being shot in Antwerp. The crime is probably related to the Belgian drug milieu, as a police spokesman for the German Press Agency confirmed on Tuesday. According to the information, shots were fired at a garage door in the Merksem district on Monday evening and hit people in the garage. The girl died a little later. According to prosecutors, her 58-year-old father and two other daughters, aged 13 and 18, were also slightly injured. A preliminary investigation into murder and attempted murder was initiated.
Figures from the Federal Ministry of the Interior
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Girl was reportedly the niece of a drug dealer
An investigation must now confirm whether the case actually has something to do with the drug milieu, said the police spokesman. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the address was not known to the authorities and there were initially no indications that the family concerned was involved in the drug trade. According to media reports, the dead girl is the niece of a man wanted for drug trafficking.
Politicians in Belgium were appalled by the case. “Children have nothing to do with a drug war,” Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden wrote on Twitter. “The drug mafia cannot fall any lower,” wrote Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne. Police and prosecutors would do everything in their power to find and punish those responsible.
Antwerp and Rotterdam are the largest import ports for cocaine in Europe
In the port city of Antwerp there are repeated cases of violence in connection with drug-related crime. According to the police spokesman, shots or explosive devices have often been used to intimidate people in front of doors or garages. However, it is the first time that people have been injured.
Antwerp’s drug crime is closely linked to gangs in neighboring Netherlands. The ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam are also the largest import ports of cocaine in Europe.
Customs investigators seized a total of around 160 tons of cocaine in both countries last year. The customs authorities of both countries announced this on Tuesday. In Antwerp alone it was about 109 tons – more than ever before. In 2021 it was around 90 tons.
In Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, on the other hand, tightened security measures and controls were successful: around 47 tons of cocaine were seized, significantly less than the around 70 tons in 2021, according to the public prosecutor in Rotterdam. But the sales value is still “a dizzying 3.5 billion euros”. In the small port of Vlissingen in the southwest, the investigators secured around four tons of cocaine, almost twice as much as in the previous year.