A court in Mechelen has found two Dutch nationals guilty of importing drugs into Belgium. Several people were injured or died after consuming the substances.
The two men have been sentenced to 120 hours of community service and their company has been dealt a suspended fine of €80,000. An additional €150,000 in assets was also confiscated.
The men are owners of the website 'FunCaps', which sells drugs that are legal in the Netherlands but illegal in Belgium. Their products entered the Belgian market in September 2019.
"Their so-called 'fun pills' were a lucrative business, with which they had a monthly turnover of one million, of which about 20 percent of sales came on the Belgian market," the Public Prosecutor stated. "They were pills with a very high dose of 4FMA, a deadly substance. There have been several incidents in our country with users of these pills. Three people died and had the drugs in their systems. Another was seriously injured."
Three people killed
The first victim was a 44-year-old man who died in Tervuren in 2021. He was discovered with his head in a pool of blood and a large amount of the drugs in his system.
The second death occurred in a house fire caused by a cigarette. The victim had also taken a high dose of the drugs and is believed to have lost consciousness as a result, leading to the fire.
The third death was a window cleaner who ingested the drugs and fell from a ladder while intoxicated. The fourth victim did not die.
Only the death of the window cleaner has been deemed as directly caused by the drugs. Other factors may have led to the other two deaths.
The Public Prosecutor originally demanded three years in prison and a €24,000 suspended fine for both men, along with an €80,000 fine for their company and the confiscation of €710,258.98.
The men asked to be acquitted, claiming they did not know their products were illegal in Belgium and acted in good faith.
A victim's sister was awarded €750 in damages as a civil party.
