The scale of cocaine smuggling at the port of Antwerp – through which half of Europe’s supply of the drug reportedly passes – is so vast that corruption of local politics is inevitable, the city’s mayor has said.
Bart De Wever, who has been mayor since 2013, said the enormous amount of cash flooding in because of drug smuggling at Europe’s second biggest port has permeated the Belgian city.
De Wever said people on benefits were accumulating vast property portfolios while “entrepreneurs who are less than 30 years old ... build banquet halls of 2,000 sq metres, completely finished in marble”.
The mayor, who is also the leader of Belgium’s Flemish nationalist party, the N-VA, said: “The port is as leaky as a colander … The cash that we handle in the cocaine trade is enormous.
“This is going to penetrate all of society,” he told De Morgen newspaper. “The influence of the money volume is not limited to certain districts. This is going to permeate politics. I dare say: in Antwerp we are on the verge that people are also buying political influence.”
In 2013, police in Antwerp intercepted more than 4,000kg of cocaine. Last year that figure rose to 40,000kg, worth more than €1.5bn (£1.35bn), as smugglers became increasingly creative. This summer, 56kg was found hidden in fake pineapples in a container that arrived from Costa Rica.
About 80% of the cocaine that lands in Antwerp goes directly to the Netherlands, where it is cut before being distributed locally and internationally.
De Wever said: “One cannot ignore the fact that since the 1970s entrepreneurs in the Netherlands have become filthy rich in the drugs business. First with cannabis, then with synthetic drugs and coke. That business model has spread across the rest of Europe. The Dutch are global consultants. Their problem has now also become our problem.”
The influx of money has been accompanied by sporadic acts of violence. Earlier this year, pamphlets containing a list of names were found on the streets. The pamphlets warned: “Death to the informants.”
In 2016, a Moroccan-Belgian drug boss known as “de Jood” (“the Jew”) was snatched in broad daylight, and has not been seen since. Unproven rumours circulated that he had been killed in Ibiza or Amsterdam.
