Belgian Court Opens Trial Over Alleged Cartel Alliance Between Local Criminals and Brazilian Cocaine Gang

The trial opened in the Justitia courtroom in the Haren district of Brussels, a bunker-like complex that once served as NATO headquarters and that previously hosted the trials of the perpetrators of the 2015 Paris attacks and the 2016 Brussels attacks [1]. Heavily armed police moved through central Brussels in the early hours of 7 September toward 22 Avenue du Bourget, the modernist building hastily built in 1967 that now houses Belgium's federal trials [1].

Prosecutors say the case exposes how European criminals work directly with Latin American drug cartels, with the alleged alliance at the center of the proceedings [1].

The trial is among several major criminal cases opening across Europe this week. In Spain, the National Court opened its trial against the Spanish engineering company Duro Felguera over alleged multimillion-dollar bribes paid to Venezuelan public officials, with prosecutors saying the payments helped the company win a contract to build a thermal power plant in Caracas in 2009 [2]. The anti-corruption prosecutor alleges that Duro Felguera's president and CEO at the time, Juan Carlos Torres and Ángel Antonio del Valle, paid $105 million to Nervis Villalobos, Venezuela's former deputy energy minister between 2004 and 2006, with the money allegedly moved through intermediary companies so that Villalobos could use his influence in the Venezuelan administration to benefit the Spanish firm [2]. Prosecutors charge Duro Felguera and its former top executives with a continuing offense of corruption in international commercial transactions and seek a €160 million fine against the company, a ban on receiving public subsidies and aid, and a two-year ban on public-sector contracts [2].

In Germany, a trial has begun in Hamburg more than four years after the Nord Stream gas pipelines were blown up near Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, with the case being heard in a special security courtroom, court spokesperson Marayke Frantzen told German public broadcaster NDR [3]. A separate high-security courtroom in Hamburg has for 15 months heard evidence against Christina Block, the German steakhouse heiress accused of ordering the abduction of her own children, a case that has sparked a major spy scandal [4].

In Turkey, journalist Murat Ağırel and 16 other people were sent to court on Friday as part of an investigation into money laundering allegations, according to local reports [5]. Emir Sarıgül, who also faced a detention order, reported to police headquarters instead of appearing in court with the group [5].