12 arrests after environmental crimes, also manager (30) Waste company in Menen suspected of illegal waste transports to France (inland)
A while ago, the French authorities bumped into a criminal gang who was guilty of serious environmental crimes. Between September last year and mid -April this year, around 4,483 tonnes of possible polluted waste, such as asbestos, would have been introduced, which the gang would have delivered more than a million euros. The waste was dumped on public sites, burned or even dropped in public garbage bins.
A scandal that also has links in our country. The Public Prosecutor’s Office of West Flanders then opened an investigation into illegal waste transports and metal thefts. An international promotion took place on 5 May, in which eight French people were arrested.
Two men in custody
In Belgium, six house searches took place in the Menen region, with two vehicles, around 20,000 euros and a mobile phone seized. In addition, four suspects were arrested. « Two of them are in custody in the cell, another is free under electronic supervision, » says spokeswoman for the public prosecutor Griet Deprest.
The two who are locked up are a man of 33 and one of 44 years old. The last, a 30-year-old business manager of a waste processing company in Menen, denies having anything to do with the illegal practices.
« The research is still ongoing, » says his partner, who also cooperates in the company. « A number of things are being charged to us, but what exactly is unclear. »
“Name to uphold”
The company has been around since 2014, has twelve people employed and achieved a profit of half a million euros in 2023. « We have about 200 containers and they are constantly rented out. We are working together with well -known companies in the region and have a name to uphold. We have been working in the meantime for ten years and would never put our business at stake. I would never allow illegal dumping ourselves. To end up in something like that, … terrible. »
The story is reminiscent of a recycling company from Brecht from 2020. In 2019, 500 tonnes of waste from their company ended up in Northern French nature. The company worked with transporters and they would have illegally dumped the waste in the forests. Last year the court decided that the Belgian company had no share in the crime.
Metal thefts
This file with links in Menen is therefore an even greater amount. During the investigation, it also came to light that there were frequent metal thefts at a company in our country. The metal was sorted in France and executed to neighboring countries, but also China. A profit of 1.2 million euros would have been made.
« Those thefts were committed by Belgian workers who were recruited by the French criminal organization, » said Deprest.
The Menense company feels powerless. « We are dragged into this and this is how our good name is smeared. We are talking about, but once prove the opposite. We hope that the investigation is quickly completed and clarity can be created, » the woman sighs.
The campaign was created thanks to a collaboration of, among others, the West Flanders Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Kortrijk investigating judge, FGP West-Vlaanderen, French authorities, Eurojust and Europol and also the Grensleie and Stad Menen police zone.
The judicial investigation is continued by FGP West Flanders, led by the investigating judge in Kortrijk, in collaboration with the French judicial authorities.
