Customs investigators in Antwerp seized a massive amount of cocaine hidden in a rice shipment at the port there. Over three thousand kilos of cocaine was found, with an estimated street value of 150 million euros.
The drug packages, valued at 150 million euros, were found during a routine search. The shipment was likely destined for the Den Haag region, according to Dutch police. No arrests were made in the case.
Four Dutch people were hospitalized after a boating accident on the Schelde in Antwerp on Friday. Two speedboats crashed into each other. A total of 20 Dutch people were injured, NOS reports.
The two speedboats, with captains, were hired by a Dutch company for its annual corporate outing. The speedboats collided shortly after departure. Multiple people ended up in the water. A diving team from the local fire brigade rescued two people from the water, the others were picked up by a water taxi, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reported.
Four Belgian men were sentenced to five years in prison for gang raping two Dutch women for hours in an Antwerp hotel in March of this year. One of the men took the Dutch women, aged 21 and 22 years, to his hotel room on Mechelseplein after a night in a nightclub, after which he and his friends raped them, RTL Nieuws reports.
Former TV presenter Frank Masmeijer, suspected of trafficking cocaine through the port of Antwerp, was arrested in a hotel in Breda on Tuesday. According to Masmeijers' Dutch lawyer, Geert-Jan Knoops, Belgium recently issued an arrest warrant for his client in connection with the drug trafficking case, NU.nl reports.
Increasing violence and drug trafficking in Antwerp has its roots in Netherlands organized crime, according to Antwerp mayor Bart de Wever. "The drug problems in terms of cocaine trafficking have moved from Rotterdam to Antwerp in recent years. Which means that the Netherlands owes a debt to the rest of Europe", he said to Nieuwsuur.
Four young men were arrested on suspicion of gang-raping two Dutch women in a hotel in Antwerp early on Saturday morning. Three of them admitted to being in the hotel, but deny raping the young women. The fourth confessed, his lawyer told Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.
The authorities in Antwerp are investigating a gang-rape involving five men raping two young Dutch women. Three suspects were arrested so far, AD reports.
The two Dutch women, 21 and 22-years-old, went to Antwerp for the weekend, according to the newspaper. On Friday night they visited discotheque Roxy, where rapper Ronnie Flex and a number of Dutch DJ's performed. At the club, they started chatting with five men. They don't remember much more of the night, they told the police. The police believe they were drugged.
Te A67 highway between Eindhoven and Antwerp is closed in both directions near Eersel after a tanker carrying a hazardous, corrosive substance crashed through the middle rail on Friday morning.
The truck was carrying sodium hydroxide, according to Eindhovens Dagblad. The accident happened just after 5:30 a.m. The truck, traveling from the direction of Eindhoven, crashed through the middle rail and toppled. A car then crashed into the truck, causing a leak.
One person was killed as the result of a shooting on Socratesstraat in the southern part of Rotterdam around 10:30 p.m. on Friday. Police reported that the victim was struck by several bullets, but found alive by first responders.
He was transported to the hospital in critical condition. The man died in the hospital on Saturday evening.
A 39-year-old Amsterdam man accused of kidnapping a 16-year-old girl and forcing her to marry him convicted on Thursday. He was sentenced to two years in prison, according to news wire ANP.
The man was acquitted of terrorism related charges, and planning a trip to war-torn Syria.
The teenaged girl is from the small Noord-Brabant village of Heesch. She was missing for several weeks spanning July and August in 2016.
A prisoner who escaped in Antwerp in July, was arrested in Amsterdam on Thursday. Belgium requested that he be extradited, AT5 reports.
According to the broadcaster, the man in question was one of two arrested for stealing expensive jewelry from homes in Belgium. Both suspects managed to escape police custody when they were set to appear in court. They attacked a police officer in front of the court and took off, still wearing their handcuffs.
The Dutch authority on consumer and markets ACM launched an investigation into whether companies operating in Dutch ports made illegal price agreements, or are guilty of so-called cartel formation. The companies investigated all work in the bunker sector, which supplies ships with fuel, NOS reports.
Belgian customs officers seized nearly 90 million cigarettes in the port of Antwerp last week - one of the largest ever in the port. The shipment came from the Egyptian port of Said and was destined for a company in the Netherlands, ANP reports.
Belgian Minister of Finance Johan van Overtveldt congratulated all involved in this record bust. "The fight against illegal products and fraud is high on the agenda, and we can see that in the results."
The cigarettes involved are so-called Cheap White cigarettes of brands not registered in Belgium.
Dutch man Jelle F. was sentenced on appeal to 18 years in prison for throwing acid in a woman's face in a Delhaize supermarket in Antwerp two years ago, ANP reports.
The sentence is the same as when F. first stood trial. Unlike the first trial however, the appeal judge did not find F. guilty of attempted murder, but of extortion and torture. According to the court, it is not clear that F. wanted to kill his victim.
The Dutch hospitals that can offer NIP tests to all pregnant women from April 1st are getting ready for a rush. They expect that half of the about 180 thousand pregnant women in the Netherlands per year will opt for the test, AD reports. Belgian company Gendia is suing the Dutch state for illegal state aid by subsidizing the test, which screens for serious disorders like Down's Syndrome.
A 39-year-old man arrested in Antwerp on Thursday on suspicion of trying to commit a terrorist attack, was arrested three times last week. One of those times happened in Rotterdam, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reports.
Why suspect Mohamed R. was arrested in Rotterdam is unclear. The police told him that he had to leave the Netherlands. He listened, because on Monday the Belgian police checked him at a friend's house in Hoboken, according to the newspaper.
On Tuesday the Dutch police arrested six persons in connection with the discovery of 1,100 kilograms of heroin in a container from Iran, the police said in a statement. The drugs' street value is around 34 million euros, according to the police. More arrests may follow.
The arrests were made after the Dutch authorities and Belgian authorities jointly searched a container from Iran in the port of Antwerp on Monday. In it they found the drugs hidden in two baking machines. The drugs were removed and the container was sent on to its destination.
Dutch pedophile Pieter C. was sentenced on appeal to 19 years in prison and 15 years of institutionalized psychiatric treatment by the court in Antwerp on Thursday. The sentence is the same as when the case was first tried, the Telegraaf reports.
The police arrested a second suspect in connection with the assassination of criminal Chahid Yakhlaf in Kerkdriel last year. The 26-year-old man from Rotterdam was arrested in the Penitentiary in Alphen aan den Rijn on Friday, NU.nl reports.
The police dismantled an international human trafficking network with raids in Amsterdam, Bulgaria, Belgium and Germany. Ten suspects were arrested, the Dutch police said on Thursday
One person was seriously injured when Dutch freighter Amadeus Amethist crashed int a bridge on the Albert canal in Antwerp on Tuesday
The police are concerned that the confiscation of 5 thousand kilograms of Netherlands-bound cocaine, worth about 150 million euros, in Belgium last week, will lead to retaliation within the crime world, possibly in the form of assassinations. Investigators are therefore calling on anyone involved in this shipment to turn themselves in.
Almost 5 thousand kilograms of cocaine was discovered in a container in the port of Antwerp last week. It is believed that the drugs were destined for the Netherlands. The Dutch police arrested to suspects, one in Breda and on in Drimmelen, in connection with the discovery.
At least 34 people were killed and another 230 injured in targeted attacks on Belgium Tuesday morning. Two bombs were detonated in a departures hall at the Zaventem airport there, causing 14 deaths and wounding 100. The others were killed or hurt when a bomb went off inside a subway car at the city’s Maalbeek metro stop near European Union offices and several media agencies.
