Belgium must react “today” to avoid becoming a narco-state

“It is today that we must react!” »». For the National Drug Commissioner, Belgium, which occupies a central place in Europe for the business of drug traffickers, cannot waste time and must mobilize the whole society in the anti -sinking control.

In an interview with AFP, Ine Van Wymersch, in charge since 2023 for this coordination mission, believes that all levels of power and activity sectors must help “Hunt illegal money”before he enters the real economy.

“The accomplices of criminal organizations live among us, the distinction between the legal world, which would be good, and illegal, that of bad, is no longer tenable. Belgium is not a narco-state, but it is today that we must react ”.

“Yet the umpteenth pizzeria”

For Ine Van Wymersch the vigilance must be exercised as soon as a commercial manager requests an installation authorization in a municipality. “Yet another hair salon or yet another pizzeria in the same shopping street, is it justified, is it good for the economy here?” Local powers must ask the question ”.

“We must also identify businesses where there is no one”potentially simple “Screens” To hide this reinjection of dirty money, continues the old prosecutor. It mentions a recent report from the Europol organization according to which “86% of the most threatening criminal networks in the EU exploit legal structures”.

Notaries who settle the purchase of real estate must participate in this “Awareness”she also quotes as an example. “Each sector must think about how to complicate its instrumentalization by criminal organizations”.

“Antwerp, the fortress”

One of the main postulates of the national commissioner is that the drug market is “Determined by the offer”and that traffickers try by all means to make their way to the consumer.

Consequence: “To disturb the networks, you have to put barriers on all traffic, maritime, air and terrestrial, that is to say control the entire logistics chain. The measures directly attacking consumers have no destabilizing effects ”.

In 2024, cocaine seizures in the Belgian port of Antwerp, the main access route on the European continent for the « blanche »dropped to 44 tonnes, against 116 tonnes the previous year.

POUR MY VAN WAYMY, “Investments in scanners and all the efforts of the services in the port certainly had a positive effect”. But, she adds, there are also new roads from South America, departures of cargoes from the Dominican Republic or more targeted European ports, such as Le Havre in France.

“Consumption has not decreased, the price (from cocaine to resale) is unchanged, and we always produce as much … It would be naive to believe that, because the port of Antwerp becomes a closed fortress, the ‘illegal activity stops ”.

A fund “Organized crime”

In terms of projects, the commissioner is working on the establishment in Belgium of a fund which would be fueled by the confiscation of the property of traffickers, and specially dedicated to the fight against anti -Drogue in all its aspects (means of investigation, public health, prevention in schools etc).

“This is our main request to the new government”she explains.

This is a kind of application of the principle “Pollueur-payer”who would like traffic money to be used to “Repair the damage caused”.

She takes the example of a hangar or a house used as a underground laboratory for the manufacture of synthetic drugs, with a lot of chemicals. If the owner of the property, private or public, is recognized as a victim by the courts, he could draw in this fund the amount of depollution costs.

Concretely, Belgium should draw inspiration from the model of the French Agency for Management and Collection of seized assets (AGRASC), a public body taking charge of justice mandate the exploitation of everything it enters. “It is a way of relieving magistrates with an independent organ likely to reinject money”.