The so-called 'Encro' trial involving 129 defendants will start on Monday 18 December in Brussels and is expected to last up to five months.
The largest correctional trial ever in Belgium, it was due to start on Monday 6 November but was postponed following claims of judicial disqualification, will begin today.
The proceedings revolve around drug trafficking, specifically the importation of cocaine from South America and cannabis from Morocco.
Background
129 defendants are standing trial: 124 people, four companies and an unknown person who the court could not identify for the time being. Some 40 of the defendants are already in custody, charged with participation in a criminal organisation, drug and arms trafficking, attempted extortion, arbitrary detention and false imprisonment.
The case into the vast criminal organisation involved in drug trafficking began with information gathered by the French and Dutch police following the decryption of the Encrochat secure communications network.
This was then supplemented by information from the huge Sky ECC investigation: in February and March 2021, the authorities cracked the encrypted app, dealing an unprecedented blow to the organised crime world.
Large wads of cash, mobile phones and other confiscated and seized goods as a result of a search on the back of the Sky ECC investigation. Credit: Belga/ Thijs Vanderstappen
Investigations resulted in nine drug laboratories being dismantled, as well as the discovery of barrels and vats full of chemicals or drug waste, tables and bowls full of white powder, notebooks with scribbled notes on how to run such a laboratory, weapons, piles of cash and so on.
According to the investigation, the organisation was responsible for receiving the goods, extracting them and repackaging them in Belgian laboratories before shipping them by container or private jet to other European countries.
Gangs are also facing charges of extortion, kidnapping, arms trafficking, forgery and money laundering.
What to expect from the trial
The voluminous investigation into the organisation – amounting to 400 boxes of evidence – has been completed and the trial, which promises to be another feat of justice, can begin.
The court case will be heard at the Justitia complex in Haren where just three months ago another record-breaking trial took place: the trial for the 2016 terrorist attacks in Belgium.
The court room where the trial will take place. Credit: Belga/ Eric Lalmand
Belgians, Albanians, Colombians, Algerians and French, among others, will face the court. According to VRT NWS, the case involves a tangle of different gangs, all tied together by their encrypted messages, first via Encrochat, then Sky ECC.
However, the accused also includes a police inspector from the Brussels South zone who allegedly provided information from police databases and thus breached his professional secrecy. The SKY ECC investigation quickly made clear that parts of the legal upper world had been corrupted, as gangs exploited port workers and lawyers too.
Because so many of the defendants are already in jails scattered around Belgium, they will have to be transferred to court every session day. About three hearings per week are expected to take place.
