Investigators in Belgium have managed to strike a blow against the drug mafia. The investigators also arrested three police colleagues. In total, more than 20 people were arrested and a weapon was found.
Investigators arrested a total of 22 suspects and searched 45 properties in a drug raid in Belgium. As the public prosecutor’s office and the federal police announced, three police officers were among those arrested. What exactly the police officers are accused of was not initially announced. The focus of the operation was the capital Brussels and the port city of Antwerp.
Around 350 officers, including special forces to arrest potentially dangerous people, reportedly seized cash, luxury cars and a firearm. Apartments and businesses were searched, among other things.
Again and again violence in the drug environment
The raid is said to have been preceded by months of investigation. The background is cocaine imports via the port of Antwerp and armed clashes in the drug community. Violent conflicts occur again and again in the scene, and an eleven-year-old girl died at the beginning of last year.
The seaport of Antwerp is the second largest in Europe, only the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands is larger. It is an important transshipment point in the international drug trade – for example for cocaine. It comes to Europe mainly from South America. Large quantities of drugs are also regularly found in the port of Hamburg: just last week, almost 50 kilograms of cocaine were discovered there.
Cocaine was probably supposed to be brought to England
Some of those arrested are suspected of planning to use helicopters to transport cocaine to England. During the course of their investigation, the authorities were able to decipher coded messages between suspected drug dealers, it is said.