Drug Network Leader Charged in Fatal Mistaken Identity Shooting in Brussels

"We can confirm that the individual has been charged with assassination as the mastermind and criminal conspiracy to commit assassination, and placed under arrest warrant on May 20, 2025. The individual denies any involvement in the events, and his preventive detention has not yet been confirmed by the council chamber," François Martin, the spokesperson for the Brussels prosecutor’s office, tells La Dernière Heure.

Nicknamed "Mara," the alleged mastermind of the assassination carried out on Wayez Street in Anderlecht in September 2023 is suspected of being the head of drug trafficking in the Peterbos housing estate and is believed to have orchestrated everything from his cell. He allegedly placed a contract on the head of a leader of another Anderlecht gang from the cell where he was already incarcerated at the time. In December 2022, the Brussels Criminal Court had sentenced Imad B. to eight years in prison, finding him guilty of leading the criminal organization behind the cocaine and cannabis trafficking in the Anderlecht housing estate.

The investigation opened after the deadly shooting in Anderlecht resulted in the arrest of seven suspects, six of whom were arrested in early October 2024 in France and Belgium.