HomeFeaturesBelgium's Drug Trial Leads To Dozens Behind Bars

Belgium’s Drug Trial Leads To Dozens Behind Bars

Listen to article

In one of the largest drug trials Belgium has ever seen, a court on Tuesday sentenced dozens of individuals, including key players who received up to 17 years in prison. The verdict represents a major win for Belgian authorities in their fight against organized drug crime.

Authorities charged more than 120 suspects from Belgium, Albania, Colombia, and North Africa with participating in a vast cocaine and cannabis trafficking ring, after investigators decoded encrypted communications. The breakthrough allowed law enforcement to uncover the extent of this sophisticated, multinational network.

With cumulative sentences surpassing 700 years, the trial shone a harsh light on Belgium’s position as a major European drug entry point. The case underscores the country’s ongoing battle against large-scale drug smuggling networks.

Out of all the accused, just nine were found not guilty, leaving numerous others facing prison terms that ranged from a few months to more than 15 years. This verdict illustrates the court’s commitment to addressing the serious nature of the charges.

“It is an extremely harsh judgment,” Gilles Vanderbeck, a lawyer representing one of the alleged ringleaders, told AFP, noting the low number of exonerations and suspended sentences.

His client, Algerian Abdelwahab Guerni, was jailed for 17 years.

Guerni, a tall bald man, was among two dozen defendants who were led in handcuffs into a courtroom in the former headquarters of military alliance NATO in Brussels.

They sat in the dock faced by a line of police officers as judges read out the long list of verdicts.

Other accused who had been bailed pending the trial, sat in court to await their fate.

Albanian citizen Eridan Munoz Guerrero, another suspected leader, received a 14-year term.

Accused of running several cocaine laboratories in Belgium, Munoz Guerrero had admitted his guilt at the start of the trial telling the court: “Your honour, I played, I lost.”

His lawyer, Nathalie Gallant, described the verdict as “fair”, adding her client’s sentence reflected his cooperation with the authorities.

The trafficking ring — active from 2017 to late 2022 — involved numerous criminal gangs and was dismantled following raids by police in Belgium, Germany and Italy.

Read also: NDLEA Confiscates 115kg Of Drugs, Detains 149 In Ebonyi

They said drugs were transported in containers from South America and Morocco and smuggled through ports in Belgium, notably the giant port of Antwerp, as well as The Netherlands, Germany and France before being sold across Europe.

The case was in part based on evidence uncovered after investigators cracked the covert Sky ECC and EncroChat apps, which the gangs used to communicate.

By breaking into the messaging tools, police said they were able to peer into the unguarded planning and carrying out of drug smuggling operations.

The Eastern Updates 

Most Popular

Recent Comments