« Cocaine capital where gangsters are popping children »: British tabloid outlines little flattering portrait of Antwerp (Antwerp)

Diamonds, the harbor, the cathedral, Antwerp hands … plenty of reasons to be proud of the Koekstad. But Antwerp is unfortunately also recorded as the city where a drug war is raging. That less beautiful image paints the British tabloid newspaper ‘The Sun’. « Welcome to the cocaine capital of Europe, where feuds between gangs end up in shootings and children end up in firefights. »

The article starts with a figure about drugs: namely that in 2023 a record quantity cocaine was intercepted in the port of Antwerp. It was a dizzying 116 tons of cocaine. The Sun Writes that Antwerp is one of the most popular destinations for the South American drug mafia. And that is not lied. Colombia, Ecuador and Panama are among the top of the countries of origin, figures of drug catches show year after year.

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In recent decades, Cocaine has become more and more part of daily life in Antwerp. The powder should not be inferior to the Bolleke, or like The Sun It describes: Antwerp is the European leader in cocaine use.

« Nobody is safe »

But the British newspaper also sues the drug violence that is accompanied by the white stuff. « While the drug gangs compete for supremacy, their bitter feuds have been skipped to the streets, with terrified residents looking for coverage in the sound of grenade explosions and even cafés affected by bomb attacks, » the critical explanation begins. « Nobody is safe for the bloodshed that takes on excessive proportions: even top officials of the government had to go into hiding. »

To reinforce the mistrust image, the newspaper spoke with the Dutch anthropologist, war photographer and crime journalist Teun Voeten (63). A few years ago, feet from the city of Antwerp was commissioned to investigate drug clans and their violence. At The Sun He tells that on a given day a grenade exploded in his street in Deurne while he was sleeping. « You have many of those small attacks in Antwerp, » says Voeten. « We have a lot of symbolic violence. People place a hand grenade on someone’s door, they shoot at someone’s house, they make homemade explosives. Actually that is a sign or a warning: » Listen, you’ve done something wrong, we know where you live. « Or: »Don’t fuck with us« , The author explains.

Feet says that the kilo price alone makes clear how much cocaine Antwerp enters. « That kilo price has fallen steadily. A large amount of cocaine is not intercepted. » In addition, feet also accumulates that the drug war has become a lot more versatile and more complex. « It is becoming more complicated. Crime is becoming more brutal. »

Firdaous

To illustrate the impact of drug violence in Antwerp, the tabloid also refers to « the tragic slaughter » of the schoolgirl Firdaous. In January 2023, strangers with a war weapon opened the fire on the garage gate of a terraced house in the Nieuwdreef in Merksem. What the shooter or shooters probably didn’t know was that behind that gate there was a living room with a kitchen. The 11-year-old Firdaous EJ, the niece of the alleged drug boss Othman El Ballouti, was playing when she was hit by a bullet and did not survive the shooting.

Read too. Sisters of shot firdaous (11) react emotionally now that suspects have been arrested: « They have taken our happiness »

Leading politicians are also directly involved in « drug terrorism ». The Sun Takes the reader to September 2022. When a handful of gangsters from the drug environment planned a plan to abduct the then Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD). The politician, who, as a justice minister, increased the pressure on the narcomaffia, testified earlier The Sun How to go into a safehouse for a week. In the end, the evidence turned out to be too scanty to put the six Dutch suspects in prison.

Read too. Vincent van Quickenborne: “Have to go into hiding twice in a safe house: I never expected anything like that”

The British newspaper concludes that the Antwerp drug war is a hopeless matter. « There is no sign that a single arrest does anything to interrupt the drug flow. There is always another cartel ready to jump in. » The Sun