Albanian Mafia Rises to Top 3 Criminal Organizations in Belgium, Police Official Reports

"Today, it (the Albanian mafia) is in the top 3, with the Belgian-Dutch and Moroccan organizations," says Divisional Commissioner François Farcy to La Dernière Heure. The criminal clans are playing on an equal footing. They are everywhere in Belgium and in the world, especially in Brussels and Wallonia, a lot in Liège. And they too have barons hidden in Dubai from where they pull the strings."

These statements follow the dismantling by 160 elements of the Federal Judicial Police (PJF) of Liège of a vast cocaine and cannabis trafficking, organized over a period of at least four years and involving clans of the Albanian mafia. In total, 18 people were arrested, 11 of whom were subsequently placed under arrest warrants for drug trafficking and participation in a criminal organization. During 21 searches carried out in Liège, Seraing, Saint-Nicolas, Grâce-Hollogne, Jemeppe, Verviers, Marche-en-Famenne, Houffalize and Morlanwelz, the investigators seized 800 grams of cocaine and cutting products in the process of conditioning in a cache serving as a workshop.

They also proceeded to seize dozens of cocaine balls sometimes in fitted caches, such as headlights, glove boxes or even the headrest of several vehicles, equipment for the conditioning and sale of cocaine, such as scales, dose bags, a vacuum packing machine and a press, etc. "This is a significant network as we know many of them in recent years," describes François Farcy.