The Federal Judicial Police (FGP) has rounded up a gang suspected of importing more than four tonnes of drugs from Spain through postal packages and road transport. Seven suspects were arrested in Belgium and two abroad.
In Brussels Airport Zaventem, a parcel containing cannabis destined for a resident of Drongen (a district within the city of Ghent) was intercepted while checking postal packages. Abroad, a similar package was intercepted, the addressee being her brother who lives in Nazareth (in the East Flanders province).
The East Flanders Public Prosecutor's Office decided to have this further investigated by the Federal Judicial Police (FGP). That investigation showed that these addressees could be part of a larger gang, which is why the East Flanders public prosecutor decided to put the investigating judge in Ghent on the case.
An intensive investigation revealed that a family (father, two sons and daughter) are believed to be engaged in collecting postal packages in Flanders sent from Spain on behalf of a criminal organisation that imports drugs from Spain in various ways.
Seven suspects arrested
Besides sending postal packages, drugs are also transferred by truck from Spain to Belgium. To do this, the gang rents a box from a storage company in Overijse (in Flemish Brabant). Afterwards, the drugs are sold to dealers. The leadership of this organisation appears to consist mainly of members of Chinese origin.
The police conducted ten house searches on 7 December 2022 (including in Leuven, Overijse, Drongen, Nazareth, Aalst, Geel, Brussels and Kortrijk), seizing some 20 kg hashish, 11 kg of cannabis, more than €40,000 in cash, luxury goods such as expensive watches and jewellery worth several tens of thousands of euros and two cars. Additionally, investigators also found banned fire weapons during the searches.
Seven suspects were arrested, four of whom were placed under arrest by the investigating judge, the other three were released under conditions. A number of suspected ringleaders could not be found.
Close cooperation with Spanish and Czech police forces did allow two suspected ringleaders to be arrested in Czechia (one in the capital Prague and one on the border with Germany) in late December 2022. One of them was handed over to Belgium on 30 December 2022, the other will be handed over soon.
Preliminary results show that the gang may have imported more than 400 packages, totalling more than four tonnes of drugs.
