After an unprecedented summer of violence in the streets of Antwerp, Belgium seems to have entered the next phase of drug terror since this weekend. Initially it was criminals who threatened and intimidated each other with shootings and explosions, but now, following the example of the Netherlands, prominent figures from ‘the upper world’ are also at risk. On Saturday, the federal prosecutor’s office in Belgium announced that there is “a serious threat” against Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open-VLD) from the drug environment. He and his family have been taken to an undisclosed location.
A week ago, the Belgian Public Prosecutor’s Office received information that was considered concrete and serious enough to act immediately, a spokesperson confirmed. From that moment on, the district in Kortrijk where Van Quickenborne lives was permanently protected by the police.
A wave of violence is plaguing Antwerp: ‘Rights from the coke trade used to come from the Netherlands. That changes’
Last Friday morning, the minister’s neighbor raised the alarm when an abandoned car with a Dutch registration number blocked her garage door. A Kalashnikov and bottles of petrol were reportedly in the car. Presumably the occupants realized that they could be discovered and fled in panic in another car.
Advanced cameras
The police were able to trace them with the help of advanced cameras and in the night from Friday to Saturday three Dutch suspects aged 20, 29 and 48 were arrested in The Hague and Leidschendam. Belgium has requested their extradition. According to the newspaper The last news A fourth suspect is still on the run. It would be about performers. Whoever gave the order must show further investigation.
Because tension straps were also found in the car, it is suspected that the minister had to be kidnapped, with the possible aim of exchanging him for leaders from the drug circuit who are currently in prison. It is a practice that was also used in the 1990s by movements such as the FARC in Colombia and the ETA in the Spanish Basque Country.
In recent weeks, it has become apparent that the threat from the underworld is also increasing in the Netherlands. Princess Amalia and Prime Minister Rutte would The Telegraph have additional security. Such threats have been taken very seriously since the murder of lawyer Derk Wiersum (2019) and last year of journalist Peter R. de Vries. In Belgium it is the first time that a minister has been threatened so concretely by the drug mafia.
One reason may be that since he took office as Minister of Justice in 2020, Van Quickenborne has made a spearhead of the fight against drug criminals in Belgium. At the end of last year, for example, he signed a treaty with the United Arab Emirates that makes it easier to arrest suspects in the drug trade who are hiding there and extradite them to Belgium. In September, he promised to double the number of people involved in the fight against drug crime in the port of Antwerp.
Cracked cryptophones
At the beginning of 2021, the drug environment already took a heavy blow when the Belgian judicial authorities managed to crack the so-called SKY cryptophones and intercept 1 billion messages. Hundreds of suspects were arrested and detained. In the Netherlands too.
Many large criminal organizations were dismantled as a result of that mega-crack. Smaller groups jumped into the hole that was created. Earlier, National Drugs Coordinator Charlotte Colman told NRC that the hierarchy is also changing as a result. Whereas previously in the Netherlands the strings were pulled, Belgian criminals seem to have taken over that role. This gives the errand boys of the past the opportunity to work their way up in the organisation. It explains the presence of so many Dutch criminals in Belgium.
The exact cause of the recent increase in drug violence in Belgium is still unknown. ‘Thief’ and ‘200’ were recently sprayed with graffiti on various buildings in Antwerp. It could indicate that a large batch of cocaine has been lost and that someone now has to pay the price for it.
In a Facebook post, Minister Van Quickenborne wrote from his safehouse that he feels strengthened by the threat “in the conviction that we must continue to fight. The criminals feel cornered. That feeling is right. In our democratic constitutional state we will never give in to violence. Never.”