In a coordinated raid in Antwerp, Belgium’s federal police searched five properties linked to alleged local lieutenants of the so-called North Sea Cartel. According to authorities, officers seized six-figure sums of cash, several vehicles and communication devices running encrypted software.
Investigators believe the Antwerp cell was responsible for distributing cocaine shipments previously brought in through the Port of Rotterdam — evidence, they say, of the organization’s cross-border structure.
“These networks don’t think in terms of national borders, and neither can investigators,” a spokesperson for the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office said. Belgian authorities say they are working closely with counterparts in the Netherlands and Germany.
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