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Friday, November 1, 2024

120 criminals were sentenced in Belgium’s largest drug case to date

Leaders of multiple criminal organizations received prison terms ranging from seven to seventeen years.

An Algerian gang leader was sentenced to seventeen years, while an Albanian leader received twelve years. Other defendants, including nationals from Belgium, Colombia, and France, were given sentences from fifteen months to fifteen years, according to VRT NWS.

The case involved 124 individuals, one unidentified suspect, and four companies. Authorities have yet to determine the identity of one suspect, Belgian Radio 1 reports.

Among those convicted was a former police officer, who received a five-year sentence for sharing confidential information from police databases with gang members. Nine defendants were acquitted.

The convicted parties were involved in smuggling cocaine from South America and cannabis from Morocco. These operations were uncovered after police cracked encrypted messaging platforms.

The EncroChat network was breached in 2020, followed by Sky ECC in 2021, according to De Morgen. As a result, the case is commonly referred to as the “Sky ECC trial” or “Encro trial.”

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