Antwerp.
Europe becomes the center of global cocaine smuggling, Antwerp is the gateway. The methods of the drug mafia alert investigators.
The youngest victim of drug war in the middle of Europe was only eleven years old. A bullet hit Firdaous in the heart when the perpetrators fired a Kalashnikov at her family’s home in the Belgian port city Antwerp shot, the father and two other girls were injured. In January, the shooters apparently wanted revenge on the uncle of Firdaous, a very wealthy drug lord with Moroccan roots who went into hiding in Dubai.
Brutal violence among rival drug gangs is not uncommon in Antwerp, with shootings in the streets, arson attacks or bomb blasts – just under 200 kilometers from Düsseldorf. But Firdaou’s death has shaken Belgium and alarmed Europe’s security experts.
In Brussels calls King Philippe to fight against violent crime and drug consumption, Antwerp’s mayor Bart de Wever demands an army action against the cocaine criminals in his city. During a hurried visit to the port of Antwerp, EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johanssen warns: “The threat to society from organized crime is just as great today as the threat from terrorism.” Politicians are also at risk, she says. Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne narrowly escaped being kidnapped by a drug gang a few months ago and had to go into hiding twice for weeks for security reasons.
Drug smuggling: Antwerp has become Europe’s cocaine capital
The violence has been increasing since Antwerp and its port became the main gateway for within a few years cocaine has become in Europe. The white powder usually arrives in containers hidden in ships from Latin America, especially from Colombia via Ecuador, but also from Bolivia and Peru. In 2022, investigators in Antwerp seized a record amount of 110 tons of cocaine, 40 percent of all seizures in Europe. For comparison: 9.6 tons of cocaine were discovered in the port of Hamburg last year.
At times, the Belgian authorities couldn’t keep up with destroying the dangerous, illegal drugs because the special incinerator isn’t big enough. But the police estimate that around 90 percent of the smuggled goods remain undiscovered and are distributed throughout Europe and sometimes even to Southeast Asia via an intermediate station in the Netherlands.
The boom of cocaine smuggling to the EU for several reasons. For one thing, increased cocaine production in Latin America is increasing supply. On the other hand, the drug cartels are shifting their activities away from the USA, where the persecution pressure is greater and the profits lower. The EU drug agency EMCDDA therefore speaks of a veritable cocaine glut in Europe. It has long been the world’s most important sales market, and consumption continues to increase. Director Alexis Goosdeel warns: “I am deeply concerned that the expanding EU cocaine market is leading to an increase in violence and corruption.”
Torture chamber in a container: The drug market in Europe is highly competitive
The internet and mobile communications make sales and business deals easier for criminals. Dealers wind up trading with their end customers in a relaxed manner smart phone away. The easier cocaine is available, the more people consume it, according to the EU drug agency. The drug gangs earn all the more: A kilo of cocaine costs 1,000 to 2,000 euros in South America, calculates EU Commissioner Johanssen. “In Europe it can be resold for 35,000 euros”. On the street, a gram of cocaine, which is enough for several servings, ends up being offered for 50 euros, making 50,000 euros per kilo. The annual turnover of organized crime with drug trafficking in Europe is estimated at tens of billions.
But the market is highly competitive, with rival gangs fighting brutally, especially in Belgium and the Netherlands. Only 25 kilometers from Antwerp, investigators discovered a fully furnished one on a farm in converted shipping containers torture chamber, in which a drug lord wanted to torment competitors and renegades. Antwerp is particularly suitable for the predominantly Moroccan gangs because the largest port in Europe in terms of area with 360 private companies is difficult to control and many processes here are not yet automated.
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First money, then pressure: The evil methods of the cocaine smugglers
This makes corruption easier: when the drug shipments arrive, the gangsters need help corrupt port employeewho tell you exactly where the containers are and how to get access. According to Belgian customs chief Kristian Vanderwaeren, gang members shadow potential victims of bribery in parking lots or in bars in the area, specifically looking for private weaknesses of port employees.
Potential informants are promised 50,000 to 60,000 euros for a good tip. But then the pressure quickly increases and doesn’t stop, adds one investigator. Then the gangsters suddenly put photos on the table of the informant’s family, children, friends – a simple, often effective threat. According to the government, 135 people were arrested last year for allegedly helping the gangs in the port.
Manhunt pressure could increase violence
60 percent of organized criminal groups in the European Union are involved in corruption, EU Interior Commissioner Johansson warned in Antwerp. At the end of February she travels to Colombia and Ecuador to negotiate with the security authorities about better cooperation in the fight against drug smugglers. The Belgian government has announced that it will employ 100 additional customs officers in the port and will purchase new scanners and cameras for biometric identification of people.
However, the police achieve great success in searches in a different way: two years ago, European prosecutors were able to use the encryption software Encrochat on the crypto cell phones of the drug networks crack, leading to hundreds of arrests. Just before Christmas, Europol announced the arrest of 49 leading drug criminals in Dubai, Belgium, Spain and France.
The shattered “super cartel” is responsible for a third of cocaine smuggling in Europe, it said. However, Belgium’s justice minister believes that precisely this search pressure is temporarily increasing the violence of the drug gangs in Antwerp as well: The gangsters become more brutal when business is disrupted, deliveries are missing and the competition becomes tougher as a result. The death of eleven-year-old Firdaous, the minister predicts, will not be the last tragedy of this kind.
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