Mayor De Wever calls for a National Security Council to be convened: “Drug criminals recruit from abroad for attacks in Antwerp” | Drug war in Antwerp

According to Mayor De Wever, the war on drugs has been very successful in Antwerp in recent years. “We have been able to reduce drug crime in Antwerp by tens of percent. We are the safest big city in Belgium. I know perception is destructive, but it is,” he said. According to De Wever, the surge in violence in recent weeks, with several attacks in a short time in the streets of Antwerp, is the result of this heavy-handed approach, although he acknowledges that there is still a long way to go.

“I cannot give a reassuring message at this time. We are doing everything we can with the local police, and extra efforts will be made. But I cannot prevent that someone from Turkey or another country, from foreign prisons, gives an order, and that offenses are then committed against another criminal in Antwerp”, it sounds like.

According to De Wever, there is currently a fierce battle between clans whose leaders are abroad. “They order attacks in Antwerp from young people from Rotterdam or Antwerp, for example, sometimes for 300 euros. Organized crime is not urban, but international. As a mayor and local police, you can’t handle that, efforts have to be made at other levels,” says De Wever.

He therefore advocates convening the National Security Council, as happened during the terror crisis in 2016. “People, resources, it was endless. This drug crisis is much worse, much more profound.” The Antwerp mayor also refers to the Stroomplan, which proposes a coordinated approach to organized crime. “The Prime Minister must convene his ministers of the Interior, Justice and Finance and develop an integrated approach to organized crime”, is his unmistakable message. “Take the Power Plan, update it and before it is done. years to quell these kinds of phenomena.”

Because if the federal government does not take the problem seriously, De Wever warns, we will also see situations in our country, such as in the Netherlands, with misdemeanors and ultimately also murders in the upper world. “I don’t want to be rosy about it. There is an infinite supply of offenders to be recruited by the drug lords.”

Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) says she is satisfied that De Wever “shares her vision that cooperation is the only answer”. However, according to her, it is not a solution to convene a National Security Council now. “In March, a consultation was held with the mayors of Rotterdam and Antwerp. Concrete actions were agreed there, such as an update of the Power Plan. In the meantime, we also strengthened the FGP, and we will continue this movement,” it said in a response. “We now have to translate these agreements in the field, and not create new consultative bodies,” says Verlinden.