SUMMARY
Belgium, the heart of the European Union, is becoming increasingly prominent for its difficulties in tackling drug trafficking through its territory, with the port of Antwerp as the main gateway. It is certainly an exaggeration to describe the country as a ‘narco-state’ today. But the data indicating an exponential growth in the entry of drugs through this port in recent years is unquestionable. In 2023, the Belgian authorities seized more than 110 tonnes of cocaine, 40% of the total in the European Union.
Pedro Fernaud / Escudo Digital
Narco-state is a term coined to describe a country where government institutions suffer from the infiltration and control of criminal organisations dedicated to drug trafficking. We are talking about a state of terror that was most famously expressed in Colombia during the era of Pablo Escobar, where drug trafficking permeates all levels of government and society to the point that public policies and official decisions are heavily influenced or controlled by organised criminal interests.
But in these nations drug cartels not only corrupt public officials through bribes, they can also go so far as to intimidate or kill those who oppose their activities. Security forces, including the police and military, are often infiltrated by drug traffickers, which greatly hampers any real effort to combat drug trafficking. The economy is distorted, as large sums of drug money finance both illicit activities and investments in legitimate sectors, creating a shadow economy that rivals the official one.
Recent examples of this kind of scourge include Venezuela, where high-ranking government officials have been alleged to be involved in drug trafficking, and Honduras, where former presidents and high-ranking officials have been judicially proven to be involved in drug trafficking operations. Mexico, which has faced major challenges due to the influence of drug cartels in its social and political life, and Guinea-Bassau, where drug traffickers have infiltrated the government and which has become a transit country for cocaine on its way to Europe, are also part of this set of states burdened by drug trafficking.
Is Belgium part of this trend?
Although it is currently an exaggeration to describe it as a narco-state, there are indicators that make one seriously consider this possibility if the drug trafficking that is developing within its borders with increasing intensity is not nipped in the bud. One example illustrates the seriousness of the problem: in September 2023, the Belgian Minister of Justice, Vincent van Quickenborne, was the victim of a kidnapping plot. The Belgian justice minister learned of the threats shortly after presenting a new plan to fight drug trafficking in Antwerp, whose port is considered the main entry point into Europe for cocaine from South America, and where rival gangs are engaged in an increasingly evident and terrible struggle for territorial control of the drug trade through intimidation.
The minister had to leave his home with his family and take refuge in a secret location after being warned that he was in danger of being kidnapped by drug mafias, he said. “Everything indicates that [the threat] is from the drug scene,” Van Quickenborne said in early October, a few days after he was able to return home. In this scenario, he and his family will remain under “high protection” for an indefinite period of time.
The relevance of the Port of Antwerp
The Port of Antwerp is essential to the Belgian economy due to its position as the second largest port in Europe and its strategic location in the heart of the continent. Its advanced infrastructure and multimodal connectivity make it a key logistical and strategic point, enabling international trade and the efficient transport of goods. In addition, its role as a petrochemical hub and its focus on innovation and sustainability reinforce its long-term economic importance, generating employment and contributing significantly to Belgium’s economic growth.
In addition, this port, located 80 km inland from Belgium, has 50 km of quays connected by rail, road and canal. Each year, 11 million containers are handled in the port, which is double the volume of 20 years ago. In 2023, more than 110 tonnes of cocaine were seized there, 40 per cent of the total in the European Union, making it the main gateway for this drug into Europe. Despite the controls, only 1.5 to 2 per cent of containers are inspected, although there are plans to improve this with increased investment in scanners and personnel.
In recent years, cocaine seizures in the port of Antwerp have reached record levels, reaching 110 million tonnes by 2022, reflecting an increase in global cocaine production. Mafias, especially those from the Balkans, use containers of perishable goods such as fruit to camouflage the drug, as VisualPolitik explains, exploiting limited customs inspections. The fact is that its size and complexity make it vulnerable to corruption and drug trafficking, with mafias infiltrating its operations to facilitate the smuggling of drugs, especially cocaine from Latin America.
Antwerp also has a number of elements that have made the port a favourite of mafias in Europe. Being a port of gigantic dimensions, it moves an enormous number of containers and controlling them is highly complex. To make matters worse, Antwerp is probably “suffering” from the effectiveness of controls in the Dutch port of Rotterdam, which until “the day before yesterday” was, as it were, the gateway for the arrival of many drugs in Europe. The fact is that it has been observed that when controls are reinforced in a port, there is a displacement of the points of arrival of cocaine, known as the cascade effect. The ability of these traffickers to extort, intimidate, buy and threaten is creating a very rarefied psychosocial atmosphere throughout Belgium. Gang fights are becoming more and more common and politicians do not seem to be free from the influence of these criminals.
Belgium’s chances of becoming a narco-state
In this context, the public prosecutor of Brussels, Johan Demulle, warned a few months ago that “the danger looms that Belgium could be classified as a narco-state”. A warning that is perfectly in line with the words of caution issued in February 2023 by the then president of the Belgian College of Attorneys General, Ignacio de la Serna, who warned that “the mafia is taking over the country”. However, not everyone linked to the Belgian legal network agrees with such far-reaching assertions. “To say that (Belgium) is a narco-state is to say that the entire political, judicial and police apparatus is infiltrated by traffickers. I think we are very far from that,” Christian De Valkeneer, president of the court of first instance in Namur, told EFE. “There may be problems in some services, but at the moment it is a very small minority and limited,” he said.
In any case, there does seem to be agreement among many criminologists, police officials and politicians that not enough has been done to combat this criminality, which originated in the neighbouring Netherlands and is now spreading strongly to Belgium. So much so that the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo (a member of the Flemish Liberals), has acknowledged in several speeches that the situation is “critical” due to this state of narco-terrorism. This consideration is fed by two major events that have raised the awareness of Belgian public opinion on the issue. On the one hand, the aforementioned kidnap threats against the Belgian Minister of Justice. On the other hand, the death of an eleven-year-old girl in Antwerp in January 2023 in a shooting at her family’s home. At the time, the mayor of Antwerp, Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever, attributed the attack to a settling of scores between groups involved in drug trafficking.
How is the EU handling this issue? From the EU, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, travelled to Colombia and Ecuador during 2023 to discuss how to cooperate with these countries in the fight against drug trafficking, while she also visited the Belgian city of Antwerp to learn more about the situation. We are talking about a phenomenon that is not new and that has affected Central European countries with particular virulence in recent times. For example, the situation in the Netherlands, where people, journalists, lawyers, etc. have been threatened and even killed as a result of attacks by these drug gangs.
Why is the violence around this problem growing so much?
Basically because there is a formidable amount of money at stake in this cocaine trafficking, which sharpens the appetite and rivalry between the criminal groups that make their living from trafficking this substance. This is a dynamic in which the criminal groups that are developing these activities are capable of resorting to extreme means to maintain their positions.
But there have also been encouraging developments in the fight against criminal networks smuggling drugs into the European Union. For example, the dismantling of the encrypted messaging app Sky ECC, which in 2021 led to the arrest of numerous traffickers and the seizure of a considerable quantity of drugs, is highly commendable, but the fight continues due to the great economic and technological resources of the criminals. So much so that this success has led to an escalation of violence on the part of the cartels. In this context, it is pertinent to note that drug consumption has increased exponentially.
Cocaine use in Antwerp, just a phone call away
In this scenario, Antwerp has the highest concentration of cocaine in Europe, reflecting a more accessible and professionalised drug trafficking environment. This means that, as some people in drug rehabilitation programmes report, getting drugs in this Belgian city is as easy as making a phone call and ordering food. We are talking about a very dangerous dynamic because the traffickers keep the telephone number of the person who has made a specific request and make offers that increase the chances of the person getting hooked on intoxicants. To the point that, if you want to “reset” your existence to change your life, you need to change your phone number.
Measures taken to control the problem include increased scanning of sea containers, reinforced port security and the creation of a regional port alliance to curb the so-called “water-bed effect”, whereby increased security in one place pushes traffic to another. While the measures are a good start, they are not enough to solve the problem, says Bart De Wever, mayor of Antwerp for 11 years. “There is too little budget to take the real measures that could make a difference. Eradicating it is impossible, but limiting it to, let’s say, an acceptable level, should be possible. If that is not our ambition, we have simply given up,” he says in a statement reported by Infobae.
In short, the situation in the port of Antwerp has intensified the political debate, with significant implications for the Belgian elections, which will take place on 9 June, and has underlined the urgent need for more effective measures to curb drug trafficking and related violence in Belgium, which also affects other cities such as Liège, where an unprecedented trial involves 37 defendants accused of international drug trafficking. This is, in short, a major problem for the health and internal security of the entire European Union. The challenge illustrated by this problem is therefore far-reaching and concerns the European identity, which will soon be re-evaluated in the elections that will also take place from 6 to 9 June.
Pedro Fernaud
Journalist and teacher with twenty-five years of experience in various journalistic media: radio, print and online media, and more than 10 years linked to the field of teaching.
Graduate in Journalism from the Complutense University and in Integral Communication from the Francisco de Vitoria University and Master’s Degree in Teacher Training, in its Social Sciences branch, at the Rey Juan Carlos I University.
Specialities: Writer, poet, expert in the social impact of new technologies and international relations, as well as cultural and sports issues; children’s storyteller, creative, social account manager, community manager, stylistic corrector, grammar checker, spelling checker and copy writer.
Teacher of Spanish language and literature, as well as Spanish, social sciences (history, history of art, history of Spain, contemporary world history…) and natural sciences (biology), as well as humanities (philosophy, ethics…) and English at primary, secondary and baccalaureate level.
Two important experiences in the associative field (four years in La Torre de Hortaleza, which uses basketball as a tool for education and social inclusion; and one year in San Fermín) in which I have developed as a teacher, responsible for a social project, Families, and as Basketball Coordinator.
