As many as 25 drug-related shootings in Brussels this year involved suspects using shared e-scooters, Brussels public prosecutor Julien Moinil has said. He is now urging the capital’s mayors to ban the vehicles in neighbourhoods linked to drug-trafficking.
Addressing the Conference of Mayors, he said dealers frequently use scooters to move and deliver drugs, taking advantage of their speed and manoeuvrability to disappear into “the maze of traffic” after an offence. He also warned that the scooters can be rented under third-party names, which “greatly complicates” efforts to trace suspects.
Moinil is now pushing for a region-wide ban on shared e-scooters, similar to measures already introduced in Paris and Madrid. He stressed that the proposal would not affect other forms of “soft mobility,” such as shared bicycles, which are not linked to the same crime patterns.
The debate comes as police intensify their crackdown on drug use. According to Bruzz, officers are issuing increasing numbers of on-the-spot fines to users—far more than in any other Belgian region—a trend driven partly by administrative pressure and judicial backlogs.
Since Moinil encouraged police to target users, more than 2,000 fines have been issued for possession—including checks at festivals. These so-called “amicable settlements” require anyone caught with drugs during a stop-and-search to pay an immediate fine, usually via QR code or card reader.
With around 80 mostly drug-related shootings recorded this year, Brussels’ 2024 hotspot strategy has become increasingly controversial. Some question its effectiveness, while others dismiss it as a PR stunt that fails to confront organised crime networks driving the trade, particularly through the Port of Antwerp.
Belgium has become an increasingly vulnerable gateway for organized crime entering Europe. That was underscored this week when authorities detained eight people over a suspected drugs-linked plot to kill Brussels’ chief prosecutor, Julien Moinil. The trend is also affecting Antwerp, where police arrested three suspects in October for planning a jihadist-inspired attack on senior political figures.
