Cannabis dealers nabbed

2 March 2015

The Federal Judicial Police of East Flanders had traced a Dutch dealer who had a large client network in Belgium and had his drugs delivered by a Belgian drug runner. On 2 March 2015, a special unit of the Federal Police managed to intercept the Belgian runner in Lokeren. He transported 4.6 kilograms of cannabis in his vehicle. Searches were then carried out at the homes of the Belgian dealers in close cooperation with the local police zones of Ninove, Lier, Hamme-Waasmunster, Oostend, Meetjesland-Centrum, Tielt, Geraardsbergen-Lierde, Westkust, Aalst, Lokeren, Klein-Brabant, Antwerp, Sint-Niklaas and Berlare-Zele, which had conducted the local investigations. In total, 42 house searches involving 177 police officers were carried out (38 in Belgium, 4 in the Netherlands). These operations resulted in the following:

• 40 people, including 2 minors, were intercepted; 23 of them were placed under arrest warrant;
• 16 kilograms of cannabis and other types of drugs (XTC, speed, etc.) were seized;
• EUR 150 000 in cash were seized, plus luxury goods, jewels and 6 cars.

This success would not have been possible without the positive cooperation of the Dutch Ondermijningsteam (Zeeland-West-Brabant Unit), the Belgian police and the Belgian and Dutch judiciary. These operations made it possible to dismantle the underlying networks in Belgium but also to arrest the Dutch main supplier. Each such operation harms and disrupts these criminal networks.

Démantèlement d’un réseau de trafiquants de drogue, Inforevue 2/2015