An officer of the Federal Railway Police (SPC) has been arrested on suspicion of corruption, after they were found to have proposed €1,000,000 to custom officials to access a sealed safe containing hundreds of kilograms of cocaine at the Port of Antwerp.
The Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed the arrest on Wednesday, after Le Soir reported that the officer had been interrogated by agents of the anti-corruption force on 15 September.
The suspect is a Brussels-based officer of the SPC and is said to have approached custom officials at the Port of Antwerp with members of the entourage to gain accessed the sealed safe.
The suspect would have even proposed the lump sum of €1,000,000 to them in order to open the safe, which contained hundreds of kilograms of cocaine. The custom officials rejected the money and reported the suspect to the Central Office for the Repression of Corruption (OCRC).
He was then placed under arrest by the Office and interrogated on the 15 September under suspicion of corruption, with his arrest warrant having been extended by a further month.
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This is the latest in a long line of actions related to drug trafficking in the city of Antwerp and it now seems that these gangs are getting more creative.
In late August, reports came out that drug traffickers were infiltrating the port through job offers, to place their own men in key positions and it now seems that they are attempting to do the same with police at the port.
Speaking to Le Soir, the Federal Prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw stated his concern that corruption among the police will become more widespread as "there is a risk that honest people no longer know how to live other than by corruption."
With increasing demands and strikes over improving working conditions, organised by police members especially in the midst of the current cost of living crisis, the fear is that even more police officers may turn bent to make ends meet.
