International drug-related crime poses a serious threat to social stability in Belgium, a senior judge has warned after his colleague said the country was developing into a “narco-state”, where mafia groups are becoming a “parallel force” in society.
Bart Willocx, president of the Court of Appeal in Antwerp, said Belgium was particularly vulnerable because of drug smuggling through Antwerp’s huge port, one of the main entry points for cocaine into Europe.
“The amount of money at stake – influencing people, corruption and bribery – is so great that it poses a real danger to the stability of our society,” he said in an interview with the Guardian.
In October last year, the court in Antwerp published an open letter from an anonymous investigating judge, who warned that Belgium was sliding towards the status of a drug state.
According to him, extensive mafia structures have already taken root and are becoming a parallel force that challenges not only the police but also the judiciary.
Willocx said Belgium is trying to avoid such a scenario.
“But it’s a process and a pressure – it’s a threat,” he said.
He was joined by Guido Vermeiren, the chief prosecutor for the Antwerp and Limburg regions, who said he agreed with the anonymous judge.
“We are becoming a country with a lot of corruption and a lot of threats,” he said.
According to Europol, more than 70 percent of cocaine entering Europe passed through the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam in 2024, although smaller ports are increasingly used by criminal groups.
Belgium’s problem is related to the huge quantities of drugs coming from South America, mainly from Colombia. A record 121 tons of cocaine were seized in Belgium in 2023, according to data from the EU drug agency, fueling violent crime.
In 2024, 44 tons were seized, which the authorities attribute to better hiding of drugs and the redirection of operations to smaller ports.
Organized drug gangs were also linked to the plan to kidnap the Belgian Minister of the Interior in 2022, as well as to a series of shootings in Brussels in 2025.
Officials described a widespread criminal network involving violence, shootings, kidnappings, torture and money laundering.
“We really have a problem and we need to invest more in staff and other resources to deal with it,” Willocx said.
In one case, criminals paid more than 250,000 euros to a port worker to move just one container, Vermeiren said. Workers who refuse to cooperate face threats and attacks.
“They received letters and photos of their children. There were attacks on their houses with improvised explosive devices,” he said.
Children as young as 13 were paid small amounts to break into the harbor and steal cocaine. Gangs often recruit youths, help them get jobs at the port, and then force them to work for them.
Vermeiren also described an incident from March 2024, when police prevented an attempt by four armed men to steal more than 1,500 tons of seized cocaine from a customs warehouse.
Police and hospital workers are sometimes bribed or intimidated into revealing confidential information about government officials, including the home addresses of judges.
Belgian judges increasingly have to live in safe houses. The anonymous judge who wrote the letter spent four months in such a shelter.
“Suddenly you have to leave your house and your family and live in a place where no one knows where they are,” Willocx said.
Judges in Antwerp are still waiting for the installation of security scanners to control bags at the court entrance, even though they were promised two years ago.
Both officials acknowledge that under pressure, judges may sometimes make a procedural mistake to avoid a verdict.
“It can happen,” Willocx said, adding:
“The pressure on prosecutors and judges is enormous. If this continues, many judges will prefer to avoid working on criminal cases for security reasons.”
The anonymous letter was published as part of the “Five to Twelve” campaign, launched by the Antwerp courts and prosecutor’s office to warn that the Belgian justice system is heading for collapse.
The judges proposed 100 reforms, including safer courts, tackling prison overcrowding and better salaries and pensions for court staff.
Although Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s government has acknowledged the problem, judges say the justice system has been underfunded for decades.
The scale of organized drug crime has become even clearer after investigators from Belgium, France and the Netherlands cracked the Sky ECC encrypted communications network, which criminals used to organize drug smuggling, pay money and order murders.
Almost five years after the first arrests, Belgian authorities announced last month that 1,206 people had been convicted, mostly for drug trafficking, violence, corruption and weapons possession, while nearly 5,000 potential suspects had been identified.
Breaking up the network gave prosecutors insight into a criminal organization that stretched from Dubai to South America.
“It was even worse than we thought,” Vermeiren said.
(Vijesti.ba)
