Laura van Lerberghe // Photo credits: DIRK WAEM / Belga / AFP
For the Belgian authorities, if shootings have increased in recent weeks across the country, it is largely because of the arrival of drug traffickers from Marseille. Paul Van Tigchelt, Belgian Minister of Justice, even speaks of the “infiltration” of Marseille clans into the deal market in Brussels.
Has the Marseille mafia arrived in Belgium? Shootings have increased in recent weeks in Belgium and Brussels has even become a hub for drug trafficking from Antwerp. For the country’s authorities, this would be linked to the arrival of drug traffickers from Marseille. For Paul Van Tigchelt, Belgian Minister of Justice, the link should not be taken lightly; he speaks of the “infiltration” of Marseille clans into the deal market in Brussels. “The Marseille mafia is a new challenge and we see that this mafia does not hesitate to resort to brutal violence and score-settling,” declared the minister.
Methods comparable to those practiced in Marseille
Violent settling of scores between rival gangs with firearms, methods comparable to those practiced in Marseille. Fabrice Cume, the mayor of Anderlecht, a town southwest of Brussels, is troubled.
“Ultra violence for the control of deal points, the fact of making tags with the prices of different products, the fact of cutting the plates of police cars, the fact of using very vulnerable members of the public to play the roles lookouts and sellers, we call it cannon fodder”, reported the councilor on the microphone of Europe 1. To see the way in which the Marseille authorities deal with this problem, this local elected official went to the south from France. Since the start of the year, there have already been 21 incidents in the Belgian capital.