The Brussels Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced two men to 36 and 45 months in prison respectively for transporting drugs via Brussels Airport.
The first defendant, a man in his 60s, landed at the airport in December 2022 from Curaçao, a Caribbean island. He was stopped by customs and quickly confessed that he was carrying drugs. In total, he had ingested 86 cocaine pellets (weighing 1.2kg); he expected to earn €5,000 for transporting the contraband.
A few months earlier, the same man had already been arrested at Schiphol Airport for similar offences, for which he was sentenced to six months in prison. The Brussels criminal court has now sentenced him to 36 months.
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The second defendant, a 30-year-old from Latvia, was planning to transport synthetic drugs via Dubai to the Maldives. The man was arrested on 6 February at Brussels Airport, as he was about to take a flight to the UAE.
Customs officials found that his backpack had a double bottom, in which white powder was hidden. The defendant immediately confessed. He was expecting to receive €50,000 for transporting the drugs to the Maldives.
According to the Public Prosecutor, the defendant had already been convicted three times for theft, violence and drugs. The criminal court sentenced him to 45 months in prison.
