Four Dutch men caught in Antwerp with explosives, firearm
A group of Dutch men with explosives and a gun were arrested in the Bogerhuit district of Antwerp early Tuesday morning. They were caught near a restaurant owned by the family of kickboxer Jamal Ben Saddik which was previously targeted in attacks.
The arrest happened at about 5 a.m., authorities in the Belgian city confirmed to HLN. “Police stopped a suspicious vehicle and proceeded to check it. A firearm and incendiary bombs were found in the car. The four young Dutchmen were arrested,” said Kato Belmans from the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office.
Their intention was still under investigation. They will be interrogated before the case is handed over to an examining magistrate.
The car was stopped near the Poke Bowl Place on Stenenbrug. Earlier this summer, two men were arrested after a Kalashnikov was used to fire gunshots at the building. A week later, someone kicked open the door of the building and threw a firebomb inside, HLN reported. They also scrawled the word “thief” on the shutters.
The kickboxer’s brother, Saïd Ben Saddik, is rumored to have stolen some or all of a drug shipment in the past. Poke Bowl Place is also located where the drug crime suspect used to house the Belhuis mobile phone shop, where he sold encrypted mobile phones allegedly using the Sky ECC service.
Authorities in the Netherlands claimed to have hacked the Sky ECC service, which the company denied, before the Sky server was seized. Antwerp officials similarly cracked down on the Sky ECC network.
However Dutch police infiltrated Sky ECC, whether by phishing or by a hack, it has led to several arrests in the Dutch drug gang underworld. The gangs are often linked to investigations not only at the Rotterdam port and elsewhere in the Netherlands, but also at the Port of Antwerp.
