Belgium: In a judicial investigation of drug smuggling, six Brussels Airport employees and three other people were detained on Monday, June 27, as per the Halle-Vilvoorde’s public prosecutor’s office.
Two unattended suitcases were found at the airport in February and March of the previous year. The bags contained 25 kilograms and 12 kilograms of cocaine, respectively. This prompted the investigation. Throughout the investigation, it became clear the smuggling had involved help from inside the airport.
On Monday, ten houses were searched, and nine people were arrested. During the house search, €217,000 in cash, as well as several vehicles, were seized.
Moreover, the people that were arrested, three of them were men aged 31, 25 and 21 from Zaventem, a 37-year-old man and his 33-year-old wife and a 45-year-old man from Vilvoorde, a 37-year-old man from Anderlecht, a 33-year-old man from Saint-Gilles and a 33-year-old man from Hoboken.
One week ago, there was also an incident that took place in which three men who had been caught attempting to smuggle drugs into Brussels Airport were each sentenced on Monday to 36 months in prison by the Brussels Correctional Tribunal, according to the sources.
There were about 1.82 kilograms of cocaine in his stomach.
Furthermore, on January 23, a 27-year-old man was caught with 75 pellets of cocaine in his stomach on a flight back from Curaçao.
