BRUSSELS: Police in Belgium and Spain arrested 45 people Tuesday as part of an international operation involving authorities in seven countries that targeted a major cocaine trafficking network, EU agencies and prosecutors said.
The operation took down “one of Europe’s most active Albanian-speaking cocaine trafficking networks in Europe,” Europol and Eurojust said, adding that searches were carried out in more than 80 places.
In a joint statement, they said the suspects imported cocaine from Latin America to European ports.
“Over 600 law enforcement officers, in close cooperation with prosecutors and investigative officers, carried out raids against the members of this network in Spain and Belgium. A number of parallel actions also took place in Croatia, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands,” they said.
In Belgium, the federal prosecutor’s office said police detained 30 people. Officers carried out 49 searches across the country, most of them in and around Brussels and the port city of Antwerp. Prosecutors did not say what was seized during the operation.
Belgium has become a major hub trafficking drugs into Europe. With thousands of containers reaching Antwerp every day, the city is one of Europe’s main ports of entry for cocaine.
Belgian prosecutors said most of the suspects lived in the Brussels district, and the organization has drop-off points near the Antwerp port, where cocaine arrives from South America. Prosecutors alleged the suspected traffickers worked in cahoots with citizens from southern Europe who belong to crime families in the Limburg province.
To transport drugs into Europe, the organization used cargo planes or private jets along with ship containers sent to the ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Le Havre in France and Hamburg in Germany, authorities alleged.
Last year, Belgian police made several dozen arrests during an organized crime operation of unprecedented scale after investigators cracked an encrypted communications network popular with criminals.
According to Belgian prosecutors, the cracking of the encrypted messaging service Sky ECC was useful in the drug case, helping to identify possible suspects in Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.
45 arrested in major cocaine network bust in Belgium, Spain
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45 arrested in major cocaine network bust in Belgium, Spain
- The operation took down “one of Europe’s most active Albanian-speaking cocaine trafficking networks in Europe," Europol and Eurojust said
- In Belgium, the federal prosecutor's office said police detained 30 people
Indonesia reaffirms Yemen’s territorial integrity, backs stability efforts amid tensions
- Statement comes after Saudi Arabia bombed a UAE weapons shipment at Yemeni port city
- Jakarta last week said it ‘appreciates’ Riyadh ‘working together’ with Yemen to restore stability
JAKARTA: Indonesia has called for respect for Yemen’s territorial integrity and commended efforts to maintain stability in the region, a day after Saudi Arabia bombed a weapons shipment from the UAE at a Yemeni port city that Riyadh said was intended for separatist forces.
Saudi Arabia carried out a “limited airstrike” at Yemen’s port city of Al-Mukalla in the southern province of Hadramout on Tuesday, following the arrival of an Emirati shipment that came amid heightened tensions linked to advances by the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council in the war-torn country.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “appreciates further efforts by concerned parties to maintain stability and security,” particularly in the provinces of Hadramout and Al-Mahara.
“Indonesia reaffirms the importance of peaceful settlement through an inclusive and comprehensive political dialogue under the coordination of the United Nations and respecting Yemen’s legitimate government and territorial integrity,” Indonesia’s foreign affairs ministry said.
The latest statement comes after Jakarta said last week that it “appreciates the efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as other relevant countries, working together with Yemeni stakeholders to de-escalate tensions and restore stability.”
Saudi Arabia leads the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, which includes the UAE and was established in 2015 to combat the Houthi rebels, who control most of northern Yemen.
Riyadh has been calling on the STC, which initially supported Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthi rebels, to withdraw after it launched an offensive against the Saudi-backed government troops last month, seeking an independent state in the south.
Indonesia has also urged for “all parties to exercise restraint and avoid unilateral action that could impact security conditions,” and has previously said that the rising tensions in Yemen could “further deteriorate the security situation and exacerbate the suffering” of the Yemeni people.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, maintains close ties with both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are its main trade and investment partners in the Middle East.
