Armed Attack on Antwerp Drug Kingpin’s Home Sparks Police Investigation

The incident occurred around 5:30 a.m. and when the police arrived at the scene, they "began to search for evidence," said Antwerp police spokesman Willem Migom. A single bullet impact was detected on the front door and no injuries were reported, he said. The federal judicial police have opened an investigation to solve the case. The Antwerp public prosecutor’s office, for its part, has requested the opening of an investigation for illegal use of weapons.

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For the moment, the investigators are studying the track of a settling of scores between drug trafficking networks, since the attacked house is that of Marzouk Doudah, a dangerous Moroccan criminal well known to the Antwerp police services. In 2001, he is said to have played a leading role in an attempted murder of a former accountant at the request of Frank Verstraeten, owner of the Zillion club where Doudah worked, but was acquitted. A year later, he was sentenced to two years in prison for his involvement in a fatal shooting that occurred in 2000.

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The Moroccan then underwent a conversion by investing in real estate throughout the Antwerp region. These significant investments by Marzouk D. did not go unnoticed by the police, who opened a financial investigation in 2011 after learning that his income would come from drug trafficking. Accused of money laundering, Marzouk D. was acquitted in 2016 for lack of evidence. The criminal court found no evidence to certify that the Moroccan’s fortune had an illegal origin.