Ghent (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The Ghent court convicted a Chinese drug ring of sending 2 tons of cannabis through postal services to destinations within Drongen (Ghent) and Nazareth. The main defendant received an eight-year prison sentence. The rest of the defendants received prison sentences that were suspended.
A Chinese drug gang delivered two tons of cannabis through postal packages to Belgium, resulting in confiscations occurring in Drongen (Ghent) and Nazareth. A prison sentence of 8 years went to the ring leader, while other defendants received sentences with no actual imprisonment.
To investigate drug trafficking activities, authorities tracked parcels from Spain which reached a Drongen woman in late 2022. The investigation ultimately led to her brother, who lived in Nazareth. Criminal assets worth €4.5 million belonging to the principal defendant were ordered forfeited by the court during the proceedings.
“That calculation is made by the police, but we dispute that it is such a large amount,”
his lawyer, Tim Smet, responded.
“All the other parties involved also question the amount,”
says the lawyer.
“They also counted a number of packages that our clients say they had nothing to do with.”
According to Smet, his client has always maintained that he was only a small part of a much larger criminal network.
“But now all the amounts are being charged to him.”
How has drug trafficking evolved in Belgium and the Ghent?
The Belgian drug trafficking situation continues to escalate as cannabis remains among the top intercepted substances. Europol’s 2021 report identifies Belgium as a main European drug shipment transit point through Antwerp port facilities. The Ghent region has experienced growing numbers of intercepted narcotics, while postal and parcel shipments emerge as preferred smuggling channels.
Belgian customs officials seized more than 50 tons of cannabis as they performed their duties in 2022, which marked a 15% increase from 2021. The Ghent judicial district documented 200 or more drug-related convictions during 2022, while criminal organisations started relying on international mail services to avoid detection.
A 2023 National Institute for Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC) study showed that Chinese criminals have grown their operations in Belgium alongside mutual distribution arrangements with European criminal groups.
Judicial authorities across Drongen and Nazareth follow nationwide trends that expose multiple smuggling rings abusing residential addresses to conduct drug deliveries through postal services. East Flanders police intercepted more than 1.2 tons of cannabis that arrived through postal packages between 2020 and 2023, and they traced the packages primarily to Spain.
The €4.5 million asset confiscation amount confirms Belgium’s stepped-up approach to financial criminal enforcement as authorities seized €32 million worth of drug-related assets across the country in 2022. Statistics confirm that organised drug trafficking continues to be an ongoing challenge in the region.
