More than 100 of Europe’s most dangerous criminal networks operate in Belgium, a hub for international drug trafficking and the heart of EU politics, officials said Friday, as street shootings in the capital soar.
Belgian Justice Minister Paul Van Tighelt said drug gangs were behind this year’s increase in street shootings in Brussels, with six recorded in March alone. Gangs from the French coastal city of Marseilles were trying to fill the vacuum left in Brussels after the arrest of Albanian mafia members, he says.
About thirty people were arrested in a major operation by the country’s federal police in February 2022, Belgian media reported.
With a major port in Antwerp, Belgium is an important drug hub.
Local media have reported shootings in recent months that have injured bystanders in commercial and residential areas of Brussels that have not previously been linked to such crimes.
Federal police declined to comment on street shooting statistics.
Van Tighelt and Interior Minister Annelise Ferlinden spoke at a news conference as the EU’s police agency Europol said it had identified 821 of the bloc’s most dangerous criminal networks and their 25,000 members to help with cross-border investigations.
Half of the groups were involved in drug trafficking, said the head of Europol, Catherine De Bol, while 86 percent of them used legal businesses for money laundering, reports Reuters.
