The series of shootings in Brussels last week are the result of a new drug-related turf war, police sources believe.
At 05:50 on Wednesday morning, just a few metres from the Porte de Hal, the fourth shooting in three days saw the killing of a 23-year-old drug dealer in the middle of the Square Jacques Franck in Saint-Gilles.
In the aftermath, the Public Prosecutor sent an investigating magistrate, a forensic pathologist and a ballistics expert to the scene to "determine if and how these shootings are linked to each other."
Investigators are looking into a chain of events which leads them into a new bitter drug war in Brussels – fuelled by international organised crime networks fighting for control of the territory and trade.
While the Square Jacques Frank is the centre of a vibrant working class and largely migrant community which extends to Place Bethléem and the Parvis, the area between Chaussée de Forest and the Rue de l’Église de Saint-Gilles is a known drug-selling spot, going back years.
Police pictured on the scene were a person was shot and killed at the square Jacques Franck - in Saint-Gilles, Brussels on Wednesday 14 February 2024. Credit: Belga / Nicolas Maeterlinck
Unlike some media reports, drug dealing in the area around Square Jacques Frank is often unnoticeable, hidden by the lively community which thrives around it.
People from the neighbourhood are more likely to be seen grocery shopping, socialising on benches with children or playing on the basketball courts. However, just a stone's throw away, there has been a marked increase in open drug use, mainly crack, in the area around the Porte de Hal.
A new turf war
This is because the turf around Square Jacques Frank appears to have been the catalyst for the series of four shootings in and around the area last week.
Investigators are following the hypothesis of a new territorial war between drug trafficking gangs established in the Peterbos district in Anderlecht, and another group based in this lower part of Saint-Gilles, in and around the Porte de Hal and the Square Jacques Frank.
According to the police source who spoke to SudInfo, a dealer from the Peterbos gang, who lives in the Marolles area, came to sell drugs on the Square Jacques Frank on Sunday afternoon. He was then beaten up and chased away by the dealers who hold the area. That night, the first shooting took place on the Marolles side of the Porte de Hal – on Rue Lacaille, where two people were seriously injured.
Two more shootings occurred in the area on Tuesday, without victims, ending with Wednesday's murder in the Square Jacques Franck.
But why did a member of the Peterbos gang enter into Saint-Gilles? Police sources are working under the assumption that the Anderlecht gang are hoping to extend their control across the city, building on the success of their operation in Peterbos.
These are believed to be linked to the Moroccan mafia, recently "infiltrated" by the Marseille mafia who have been increasing their presence in Belgium. The violent gang is also believed to be behind the shootings in Anderlecht last summer – including one incident where a 30-year-old man was found killed with 17 bullet wounds on the Rue Wayez, a main artery of the neighbourhood.
Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt pictured during a press conference to present the annual report of the Federal Police, in Brussels. Credit: Belga / Eric Lalmand
This theory was confirmed by Justice Minister Paul Van Tigchelt on Wednesday. "It seems that there is an extremely violent network – which we can link to Peterbos – that is indeed trying to dominate the drug trade. And it appears that that network has also been infiltrated by the Marseille mafia."
The situation in Peterbos was reported on by a bulletproof vest-wearing Flemish journalist from VRT, who went to the scene after the Flemish tabloid Het Laatste Nieuws reported that the gangs operating there had set up roadblocks and monitored visitors.
The situation there does need urgent attention, yet the chief of police of the Brussels police zone Midi Jurgen De Landsheer has rejected media claims it is a no-go zone, as did the mayor of Anderlecht Fabrice Cumps, who said it is "no worse than in Antwerp."
Belgium's reception crisis
The new drug wars are also being helped by another political phenomenon – Belgium's reception crisis.
On the ground, gangs are resorting to employing undocumented migrants, some of which are shut out of the asylum system and left to fend for themselves on the street. Many cannot be employed officially due to their lack of papers.
This was the case of the victim of Tuesday’s shooting, a 23-year-old Badreddine Jammal who was murdered while selling on the street, ending a chain of four score-settling shootings in three days.
Police are seeking witnesses to the murder of Badreddine Jammal in Saint-Gilles. Credit: Federal Police
"It is those staying irregularly who are increasingly used by gangs as cannon fodder to sell drugs on the street," the source told SudInfo. "It's a phenomenon that has already claimed seven lives in the capital in 2023."
In response to the shootings and reports in the media about Peterbos, the Belgian Asylum and Migration State Secretary Nicole De Moor announced on Thursday she will target the street level of the drug operation.
Undocumented migrants who are arrested during police operations will now be immediately deported – as part of expanding the High Trouble project in Antwerp to the Brussels-Midi police zone, which includes Anderlecht. This measure strikes at the lowest rank of the pecking order, and does not target the powerful networks orchestrating the operation.
Last year, Interpol warned that organised crime groups in Europe are growing exponentially and are increasingly transnational. Belgium appears to be a focal point through the Port of Antwerp, where 100 tonnes of cocaine were seized by port authorities in 2022, and last year was dubbed Europe's new cocaine capital.
The many mafias
"Over the last five years, [drug] trafficking and consumption have increased by an order of magnitude, with Europe one of the main transit and destination markets," said Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock said in May 2023.
The Albanian mafia remains one of the most powerful in Europe after it took over large parts of the continent’s drug trade through terror and violence. Inside sources claim it is one of the most 'professional' organised crime groups operating on the continent – and is harder to track as they are in constant movement. They are very active in Brussels in the cocaine trade.
"Those gangs operate internationally. We know the Albanian mafia is in Brussels, uses the Port of Antwerp and of course has links with Albania and the rest of the Balkans," said Justice Minister Van Tigchelt on Thursday.
Containers on an aerial view on the Antwerp harbour. Credit: Belga / Yorick Jansens
However, it is rival Moroccan gangs that are reportedly controlling the trade in Antwerp – and are believed to be behind the huge rise of violence in the city in the last few years.
But there are many more groups active in Belgium – including the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, and the Scandinavian motorbike gangs, according to the Belgian justice minister. In most cases, these gangs infiltrate the Port of Antwerp for drug trafficking through bribes to port officials.
While it can be hard to verify cover the extent of the operations, the recent violence shows there are numerous international gangs with links to Marseille, Morocco, Italy, Dubai and Panama operating in the country – now it is spilling onto the streets of Brussels.
While Belgian authorities will now focus their efforts on the situation on the ground in Porte de Hal and Peterbos – the true challenge will be sustaining a transnational effort to dismantle the powerful organised groups vying for control of the lucrative illegal drug trafficking trade in Europe.
