Belgium’s descent into a narco state: How cartels have taken control, with machine-gun street battles killing kids as young as 11 and so much cocaine flowing that police incinerators can’t destroy it all

At 21, Zakaria El Kasmioui was already the boss of a young criminal gang that generated an estimated £25 million by importing tonnes of cocaine through the port of Antwerp – the drugs gateway of Europe.

At 29, the kingpin appears on Belgium’s ‘Most Wanted’ list and has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, but he is believed to have evaded capture by relocating to a luxury skyscraper in Dubai where he continues to expand his collection of Rolex watches and Louboutin trainers.

Kasmioui, who goes by the deceptive nickname ‘Piwi’ (meaning ‘idiot’), is but one part of Belgium’s spiralling cocaine problem, where drug lords preside over mafia-like gangs and rival the police and judiciary for control of the country.

The situation is so alarming that a senior investigative judge broke her silence, warning that her nation was rapidly evolving into a ‘narco-state’ because of the ‘billion-dollar’ black market industry.

‘We are facing an organised threat that is undermining our institutions,’ wrote the terrified judge in her 1,000-word anonymous open letter, pleading for ‘a government that takes responsibility for protecting its own foundations’. 

The whistleblower paints a grim picture of state corruption, revealing how drug cartels have infiltrated every fibre of Belgium society – from customs personnel to police forces and employees of the justice system in prisons and courts. 

Not only that, but senior officials have been forced to live under permanent police protection because of threats from gangsters, who are using Snapchat to order home bomb attacks and kidnappings for a few hundred euros apiece.

Without immediate action, more innocent civilians – who have nothing to do with the criminal underworld – risk getting wrapped up in the violence, with Brussels alone recording 92 shootings last year, killing nine and injuring 48.

In 2023, cocaine seizures in Europe hit a record for the seventh consecutive year, with 419 metric tonnes confiscated by authorities. 

Belgium led the way with 123 tonnes – 116 tonnes in Antwerp alone – followed by Spain (118 tonnes) and the Netherlands (59 tonnes), as the three countries with major ports accounted for 72 percent of the total amount grabbed by agents.

However, seizures likely represent only 10-20 percent of the total amount of the drug in circulation, and gangs fully anticipate that a proportion of their deliveries will be discovered. 

Still, the profits are huge, with demand for the substance showing no signs of faltering – its street price has held steady at around €50 per gram for the past decade.

And as rival gangs compete to cash in on the £11 billion trade, their bloody turf wars are spilling out on to the streets.

On Thursday, the dismembered body of Tijn, a 25-year-old man who had gone missing from Alkmaar in September, was discovered at a holiday home in Belgium.

Reports in local media suggest his death was linked to a drugs dispute – the latest incident in a string of gruesome cases which have been plaguing the western European country for years.

In 2022, 46-year-old Yacine El M’Rabet was tortured to death in Brussels for reportedly stealing cocaine from his bosses Michaël Pindeville and Ahmed El Battouti.

He was discovered on the side of the street after reportedly having been burned on his genitals with an iron and with a homemade blowtorch, doused with ammonia, and beaten with a gas canister and a metal bar, which was also used to rape him.

That same year, Dutch media reported that a 17-year-old had his earlobe cut off, tendons in his hand severed, and a piece of one of his toes removed after he was suspected of having tipped off another gang about the location of 300kg of cocaine in East Flanders.

In a particularly hideous case, an 11-year-old girl was shot dead in Antwerp in 2023 after being caught up in the crossfire of warring drug traffickers.

The child, who was from the Merksem district, was having dinner with her family when the house they live in was shot at.

‘We have entered a new phase of narcoterrorism in our country,’ warned former justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne that year, who, along with his pregnant wife and two children, has spent time in hiding after evidence surfaced that drug gangs were plotting to kidnap him.

‘I think it will get worse, and I’m afraid that more tragedies will follow.’ He was right: with 57 shootings since the start of 2025, Brussels is on the verge of another record year for gun violence, with most of them linked to drug wars.

In February, civilians were terrified after gunshots were heard outside a metro station in the centre of Brussels, where CCTV showed two masked gunmen believed to be linked to the drugs world.

Antwerp has long been the preferred point of entry for gangs smuggling cocaine into Europe, with its steady flow of fresh fruit crates offering the perfect concealment for contraband.

Most of the drugs originate in Colombia, as well as Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay and Brazil, from where they are imported – often by Albanian cartels – to Europe’s second largest seaport.

Officials in Belgium have seized so much cocaine that they are struggling to dispose of it before gangs steal it back: incinerators can only process 1,000 to 1,500kg per session before the white powder damages the filters. 

However, as the anonymous judge revealed in her plea for action, key personnel tasked with combating the drug trade – including port workers, ticket office staff, and even police officers – have been found to be complicit. 

In January 2024, Belgian police arrested 22 people – three of whom were cops – in a major drug case, during which they raided 45 private homes and businesses where money, luxury vehicles and a handgun were seized.

Some of the suspects plotted to smuggle cocaine to the United Kingdom using helicopters, the police uncovered.

Meanwhile, state officials who dedicate their lives to fighting corruption have an immediate target on their backs.

‘An attack with a bomb or weapons of war, a home invasion, or a kidnapping are all easily ordered online,’ warned the anonymous judge, who has herself spent four months living in a safe house guarded by an elite armed police unit after receiving threats from drug traffickers. 

‘You don’t even have to go to the dark web; a Snapchat account is all it takes.’

And no one is immune, not even the political elite: Bart De Wever, the prime minister of Belgium, was placed under 24-hour police protection in 2021, as was Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, over fears cocaine gangs were trying to target them.

Law enforcement has seen some success in busting cartels in recent years, however.

In December 2023, one of the largest criminal trials in Belgium’s history kicked off, with 120 defendants in the dock charged with drug and arms trafficking, extortion, acts of torture and attempted murder.

The ‘mega trial’ followed a revolutionary government hack of two encrypted communications platforms – Sky ECC and EncroChat – used by drug kingpins, port workers, crime families and all their lawyers.

By October 2024, 119 people were sentenced to prison terms ranging between 14 months and 17 years.

As part of Belgium’s war on drugs, Nordin El Hajjioui, nicknamed ‘Dikke Nordin’, was extradited from Dubai to Belgium in March last year after he was accused of not only cocaine smuggling but involvement in a series of grenade attacks.

This summer, Othman El Ballouti – dubbed the ‘Cocaine King’ – was also finally extradited to Belgium by Dubai authorities, after he was sentenced in absentia in September 2024 to seven years in prison for importing 840kg of cocaine from Ecuador.

He is considered a key figure of the second generation of the ‘Mocro-Mafia’ – a criminal network of cocaine traffickers of Moroccan-Dutch origin. 

Last year saw the conclusion of the Marengo trial in Amsterdam: a case that saw one of the Netherland’s most-wanted fugitives, Ridouan Taghi, sentenced to life behind bars for ordering a series of gangland killings.

In the mammoth trial, after 142 hearing days spread over almost six years, Taghi and 16 other men were accused of six murders, four attempts at murder and the preparation of several other attacks.

Taghi, who was extradited from Dubai in 2019, is seen as the mastermind of what is thought to be one of the Netherlands’ largest drug cartels.

‘He decided who would be killed and spared no one,’ the judge said, describing him as the ‘undisputed leader’ of the ‘murder organisation’ which killed rivals ruthlessly –  sometimes in front of their young children.

‘The amount of suffering Taghi caused to the victims and their loved ones is barely imaginable,’ the judge said.

Three murders were also committed during the course of the trial, including celebrity Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who was shot dead on a busy Amsterdam street in 2021.

De Vries was acting as an adviser to a suspect-turned-state witness in the trial, whose lawyer, Derk Wiersum, was killed in front of his own home in 2019.

But several kingpins – such as Kasmioui or ‘Piwi’ – are still on the run abroad in countries like Dubai, where authorities have historically been reluctant to arrest and extradite Belgian suspects.

When police searched his property in Edegem, they found €60,000 worth of Rolex watches and that his wardrobe was stacked full of Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana designer clothes.

And in a tapped phone call between his girlfriend and her friend, the woman boasted of feeling like Kim Kardashian because of all the luxury gifts she had received from her drug lord lover, Het Laatste Nieuws reported.

But by the time police arrived to arrest Piwi following his sentencing in absentia, he had already fled – reportedly to an opulent apartment in Dubai’s Burj Vista, complete with multiple infinity pools and designer boutiques on the ground floor. 

Jos Leijdekkers, 33, is another one of Europe’s most-wanted fugitives who has escaped the grip of the authorities.

He was sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison in June last year by a Rotterdam court for smuggling more than seven tonnes of cocaine, but is believed to be living in Sierra Leone – a transshipment point for large volumes of Latin American cocaine headed to Europe.

A $210,000 (£168,000) reward is being offered for tip-offs that lead to the arrest of the kingpin, also known by the nickname Bolle Jos.

But it may be a while before Leijdekkers is brought to justice, for it appears he has successfully insinuated himself into the lives and businesses of the country’s elite.

Videos and photos verified by Reuters of a church Mass in Sierra Leone on January 1 show the convict sitting two rows behind Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, next to his daughter – Agnes.

Unverified reports suggest that the two could be married, and multiple sources said Leijdekkers was benefiting from high-level protection, allowing him to evade capture.

Donald Trump’s military airstrikes targeting boats allegedly involved in drug trafficking off the coast of Venezuela have stirred controversy, with Republican Senator Rand Paul describing them as ‘extrajudicial killings’.

In recent weeks, his administration has carried out at least eight strikes against boats in the Caribbean sea, killing about 40 people.

But Prime Minister De Wever has applauded the efforts of Trump, and called for stepped-up collaboration and information between the EU and United States, ‘because the drug criminals know no borders’, he said.

Belgium no-doubt faces unique bureaucratic difficulties when it comes to battling cocaine smuggling, one being the fact that it is administrated by 19 different mayors.

‘Nineteen authorities, 19 mayors, makes it complicated to have coordination,’ Belgium’s Drug Commissioner Ine Van Wymersch told Politico.

And in the digital age with advanced technology, busting criminal gangs is more difficult than ever.

‘It’s not like you can follow the Italian chain, or the Serbian or the Moroccan chain,’ Van Wymersch said.

‘They are all working for each other and in a much more anonymous way.

‘Today they all have nicknames, they use encrypted communication. They don’t know a lot about the organisation where they are involved in. They know their counterpart, but they don’t have to see each other anymore.

‘It’s very diverse. That’s what we see in the street, that a lot of vulnerable people are recruited to do the dirty jobs.’

Now more than ever, state officials must come together to dismantle the increasingly sophisticated mafia-like networks threatening to overwhelm Belgium’s civil society – before more blood is shed.