Belgium drug trafficking: Moroccan baron’s brothers face 7 years prison

The import of the merchandise bore the mark of "Dikke" Nordin, but his arrest in Dubai on the eve of the operation forced a change of plan. According to Belga news agency, the kingpin turned to the encrypted messaging service Sky ECC to task his brother Mohamed, 34, with overseeing the drug recovery on June 16, 2020. The logistics then mobilized another family member, Hakim, 26. The latter liaised with Younes E.B., the younger brother of baron Othman E.B., capable of mobilizing dock workers, as well as with Remko d.V., responsible for transport. The investigation also identified several accomplices tasked with loading the truck, extracting the hidden stash, and distributing the blocks.

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Faced with the scale of the network, the public prosecutor came down hard by demanding seven years imprisonment and 56,000 euros in fines for Mohamed, Hakim and Younes. Sentences ranging from four to five years were requested for the rest of the group, coupled with a global seizure of 1.6 million euros. At the hearing, Mohamed’s defense contested his criminal scope by emphasizing his status as a subordinate. "He was only executing what his eldest brother had already planned. Our client should not be judged on his name, but on his actual role," his lawyers argued. The criminal court will deliver its decision on June 12.