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Major Drug Trafficking Ring Busted: 120 Convicted in Brussels Trial
Wednesday 30 October 2024, by
End in Brussels of the exceptional trial of 120 people prosecuted for international cocaine and cannabis trafficking, among other things, from Morocco. The accused were sentenced to sentences ranging from a few months to 17 years in prison.
After a long trial that took place from December 2023 to May 2024, the Brussels court finally delivered its verdict on Tuesday in this case of international drug trafficking from Morocco for which more than 120 men and women of Albanian, Colombian, Belgian, Kosovar, Ukrainian or Maghreb origin are prosecuted in detention or at liberty for participation in a criminal organization, illegal drug trafficking, arms trafficking, kidnapping, etc.
The two alleged leaders of the criminal network were sentenced to heavy sentences. They are the Algerian Abdelwahab Guerni, sentenced to 17 years in prison, and the Albanian Eridan Munoz Guerrero, who received 14 years in prison. "I confirm that I led a group," but "there are a hundred people here that I don’t even know," the Albanian had declared at the beginning of the trial. Some suspects were acquitted.
With the collaboration of its counterparts in Italy and Germany, the Belgian police had managed to dismantle this vast drug trafficking network in 2021-2022. The investigators were able to decode the messages exchanged between the members of this criminal organization via the encrypted messaging applications Encrochat and Sky ECC, which allowed them to discover the modus operandi of the network.
The accused transported the drugs in containers from Morocco or South America to the ports of Antwerp (Belgium), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Hamburg (Germany) and Le Havre (France). Investigators also discovered clandestine cocaine processing sites and cannabis plantations in warehouses in Belgium.