Antwerp’s cocaine crisis has pushed Belgium’s judiciary to breaking point. Photo / Getty Images
Antwerp’s cocaine crisis has pushed Belgium’s judiciary to breaking point. Photo / Getty Images
Belgium is becoming a narco-state with drug kingpins rivalling the police for control of the country, a senior judge has warned.
An investigative judge from Antwerp has admitted that the judiciary was powerless to protect citizens from the “extensive mafia-like structures” that have ensnared the nation.
In an excoriating openletter published on the official website of Belgium’s court system, an anonymous police protection female judge has described how a “billion-dollar” black market economy built on drug-trafficking and bribery is “permeating our institutions from the ground up”.
The port city of Antwerp is Europe’s main gateway for cocaine imported from Latin America by Albanian gangs and cartels.
The judge, one of 17 in the city, said violence was endemic with drug lords ordering gangland hits and the kidnapping of rivals over social media for as little as a few hundred euros apiece.
The judge said many of her peers have been forced to live under permanent police protection for extended periods because of threats from gangsters and that she herself spent four months in a safe house.
“Under those circumstances, no government contacts us, nor actively offers support, no compensation, no shelter for family and colleagues, no insurance for all damages,” the judge wrote.
A Belgian judge warns that drug cartels are turning the country into a narco-state. Photo / Getty Images
According to police data, around 92 shootings, in which nine people were killed and 48 injured, were reported in Brussels last year alone.
The letter added: “More than once we are asked: ‘Why do you actually do that?’ and – as one politician asked me – are you a noble knight for the rule of law or Don Quixote ... We don’t feel like noble knights, more like soldiers on the front lines without backing.”
Extensive mafia structures
The judge warned that there is a strong possibility of her colleagues being forced to “conjure up a procedural error” to avoid signing a confession out of fear for their own personal safety.
In a damning indictment on the state of the country’s law and order, the judge wrote: “Extensive mafia structures have taken hold, becoming a parallel force that challenges not only the police, but also the judiciary.
“The consequences are serious: are we evolving into a narco-state? No way, do you think? Overblown?
“According to our drug commissioner, this evolution has begun. My colleagues and I share this sentiment.”
Annelies Verlinden, Belgian’s Justice Minister, told the Flemish national broadcaster VRT that she “understands the investigating judge’s serious concerns” and that “further measures to increase the level of security for justice department workers” are being introduced to tackle the problem.
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