International drug crime poses a danger to social stability in Belgium, according to a senior judge, after his colleague warned the country was evolving into a “narco-state” where mafia groups were forming a “parallel force” in society.
Bart Willocx, the President of the Antwerp Court of Appeal, said Belgium was vulnerable to criminality stemming from drug smuggling through the city’s vast port, one of the main entry points into Europe for cocaine smugglers.
He told The Guardian in an interview:
The amount of money involved—to influence, corrupt, and bribe people—is so large that it is a real danger to the stability of our society.
These new ‘narco-state’ claims parallel those made late last year by an anonymous Antwerp judge in an open letter published on the website of the Courts and Tribunals of Belgium.
