Drug trafficking in Belgium has reached a breaking point. Senior judges and prosecutors are now warning that cocaine smuggling networks have grown powerful enough to threaten the stability of Belgian society itself. One court president says the criminal money flooding the country is simply overwhelming the system.

Bart Willocx, president of the Antwerp court of appeal, told the Guardian exactly how serious things have become. “The amount of money that is involved, to influence people, to corrupt people and to bribe, it is so big that it is really a danger for the stability of our society,” he said.

His remarks follow an extraordinary open letter published last October by an anonymous investigative judge. The judge warned that Belgium was drifting towards becoming a narco-state. Mafia structures had grown so entrenched, the letter said, that they now act as “a parallel force that challenges not only the police, but the judiciary.”

A Port Under Siege: Drug Trafficking in Belgium Flows Through Antwerp

Antwerp sits at the heart of Europe’s cocaine problem. According to Europol, more than 70 per cent of cocaine entering Europe passed through Antwerp and Rotterdam in 2024. The EU drugs agency recorded a staggering 121 tonnes seized in Antwerp alone in 2023. That figure dropped to 44 tonnes in 2024. Officials say criminals now use better chemical concealment and route more shipments through smaller ports.

The trade takes a visible human toll on the port’s docks. Gangs approach workers, groom them and corrupt them. Those who refuse face something far worse.

“They received letters, photos of their children. There were attacks at their homes with homemade explosives,” said Guido Vermeiren, prosecutor general for the Antwerp and Limburg regions.

In one documented case, criminals paid a single port worker more than €250,000 to move one container. That kind of money makes conventional deterrents look irrelevant.

Children Recruited, Judges Forced From Their Homes

Organised drug crime in Belgium reaches well beyond port warehouses. Vermeiren described how gangs groom young people, help them find port jobs and then squeeze them for cooperation. Gangs have paid children as young as 13 small sums to break into the port and steal cocaine directly. “They are not interested in what happens with those people,” Vermeiren said.

The threat has crept into the courtrooms too. Criminal networks obtain home addresses of judges and public servants through bribed police and hospital staff. More and more Belgian judges now live in safe houses. The anonymous judge who wrote last October’s open letter spent four months in one.

“From one day to another, you have to leave your house, you have to leave your family and you are going to live somewhere where nobody knows where you are,” Willocx said.

The Antwerp court of appeal still has no security scanners at its entrance, despite a government promise made two years ago. Staff grow uneasy when defendants arrive with large bags.

Drug Trafficking in Belgium Is Quietly Shaping Court Decisions

The most alarming admission from both officials concerns what happens inside the courtroom. Pressure from organised drug crime in Belgium may already influence judicial decisions, even without direct corruption.

“There is too much pressure on prosecutors or judges,” Willocx said. “If we go on like this, a number of judges will prefer not to work in criminal affairs because of safety reasons.”

Vermeiren agreed. He said the scale of the threat may already produce an unconscious influence on judges. In a system built entirely on impartiality, that possibility is deeply corrosive.

A Justice System Counting Down

The warnings are growing louder. Last May, judges staged street protests. That movement grew into the Five to Twelve campaign, a public effort to signal that Belgium’s justice system is close to collapse.

Judges put forward 100 proposed reforms. These cover court security, chronic prison overcrowding and better pay for clerks and judicial staff. The government, a five-party coalition led by Flemish conservative Bart De Wever, acknowledges the problem but has not acted decisively. A justice ministry pledge last November to spend an extra €1 billion by 2029 has not satisfied those on the frontline.

Willocx describes a vicious circle. Underfunded courts perform poorly. Poor performance then justifies further cuts.

The True Scale of Organised Drug Crime in Belgium

The full picture of organised drug crime in Belgium only became clear when investigators from Belgium, France and the Netherlands cracked the Sky ECC encrypted messaging network in early 2021. Hundreds of criminals used it to coordinate smuggling routes, arrange cash handovers and order killings.

Nearly five years on, 1,206 people have faced conviction, mostly for drug offences, violence, corruption and weapons possession. Investigators identified close to 5,000 potential suspects. The criminal network stretched from Dubai to South America. “It was even worse than we thought,” Vermeiren said.

Drug gangs also had links to a 2022 plot to kidnap a Belgian interior minister, and to a series of shootings in Brussels in 2025. In March 2024, police stopped four armed men attempting to steal more than 1,500 tonnes of cocaine from a customs warehouse.

What Needs to Change

Belgium is not yet a narco-state, but it is heading in the wrong direction. Drug trafficking in Belgium now threatens law enforcement, judicial independence and the safety of public servants. It is also reaching into communities, recruiting the young and the vulnerable as pawns. The gangs that groom children and exploit port workers do not care about the damage they leave behind.

Tackling this requires more than court reforms. Communities need real investment, young people need genuine opportunities, and those most at risk of exploitation need proper support. Legal reform matters, but so does addressing the conditions that make people easy targets in the first place.

The judges say the clock is ticking. The government needs to start listening.

Source: dbrecoveryresources