Former Helicopter Escapee Sentenced for Cocaine Trafficking in Antwerp Port

The case dates back to March 2021, when Mohamed J. had delivered 35 packages of cocaine to a certain M. O. for the sum of 958,750 euros. His younger brother, O.J, was supplying the drugs. Investigators intercepted encrypted messages on Sky ECC proving that the latter was playing a coordinating role in the cocaine trafficking that he was recovering at the port of Antwerp, reports La Libre.

In the same month of March 2021, O. J. had sold 30 other packages for the sum of 810,000 euros to an unidentified person. M. J. was again responsible for delivering the drugs and collecting the money. On June 27, 2023, the police carried out a search at Mohamed J.’s home and found a firearm as well as an Iphone and a Rolex watch worth 7,000 euros. All these objects were seized.

Seized with the case, the Antwerp court sentenced Mohamed J. to forty months in prison for his involvement in the cocaine trafficking and one year for illegal possession of weapons. His younger brother, O. J., was sentenced to five years in prison by the court, which ordered his immediate arrest. M. O., already convicted for similar acts, received an additional one-year sentence.

The court also ordered the confiscation of assets worth 1.25 million euros against O. J., 437,500 euros against M. O. and 50,000 euros against Mohamed J. To recall, M. J. had managed in 2009 to escape from Bruges prison aboard a helicopter with Ashraf Sekkaki, nicknamed "the king of escape". Arrested in Morocco, he had been sentenced to ten years in prison. Ashraf Sekkaki, for his part, is still in prison.