Drugs commissioner: Belgium must act now to tackle trafficking and money laundering
Belgium’s National Drugs Commissioner says the country has no time to lose and must mobilise the whole of society to tackle the drugs trade and money laundering.
Belgium occupies a central position in Europe for the trafficking business. In an interview with news agency AFP, Ine Van Wymersch said that all levels of power and sectors of activity in the country must help to stop illicit money before it enters the legitimate economy.
“The distinction between the legal world, the good world, and the illegal world, the bad world, is no longer tenable,” she said. “Belgium is not a narco-state, but the time to react is now.”
The former prosecutor called for local authorities to be more thorough when a business applies for permission to set up.
"Belgium is not a narco-state, but the time to react is now"
“Is yet another hairdresser or pizzeria in the same shopping street justified, or good for the local economy? Local authorities need to ask themselves this question,” she said, citing a recent report by Europol, which states that 86 per cent of the most threatening criminal networks in the EU exploit legal structures.
“Each sector must think about how to make it more difficult for criminal organisations to exploit it.”
Supply-driven market
She stressed that the drugs market was “supply-driven”, and that traffickers use all means possible to reach the consumer. To disrupt these networks, there should be barriers on all routes throughout the entire logistics chain, as “measures aimed directly at consumers have no destabilising effect”.
In 2024, cocaine seizures in the port of Antwerp, the main access route to mainland Europe, fell to 44 tonnes, compared with 116 tonnes the previous year. Van Wymersch says this shows the investment in scanners and efforts made by the port services have had a positive effect.
However, there are new routes from South America and cargo departures from the Dominican Republic or more targeted European ports, such as Le Havre in France.
"It would be naive to believe that, because the port of Antwerp is becoming a closed fortress, illegal activity will stop"
“Consumption has not fallen, the price [of cocaine on the street] is unchanged, and just as much is still being produced," she said. “It would be naive to believe that, because the port of Antwerp is becoming a closed fortress, illegal activity will stop.”
She is working on setting up a fund, financed by the confiscation of traffickers’ assets, to pay for investigation resources, public health, education and other measures.
“This is our main request to the new government,” she said.
#FlandersNewsService | © Members of the National Anti-Drugs Secretary with bags of sugar containing cocaine, seized during an operation in Asuncion, July 2024. The shipment was reported to be bound for Antwerp © DANIEL DUARTE / AFP
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