Drug gang crime has become so out of control in Brussels that military forces will be deployed to the Belgian capital, the government announced this weekend.
The increasingly violent situation in Brussels, fueled in large part by drug gangs often of North African descent, such as the infamous multinational Morco Mafia, has spurred the government to take drastic action in the multicultural city, in which around four in ten residents are now foreign nationals.
Minister of the Interior Bernard Quintin told De Standaard: “We don’t want to lose domestic territory… The army must defend the integrity of the territory. Military personnel usually do this at our borders or far beyond. But the war against drug crime also falls under the protection of our territory.”
“Only the modalities still need to be worked out,” Quintin added. “Anyone who doesn’t see an emergency situation now has been living on a different planet for the past year.”
The Interior Minister said that he was inspired by a recent conversation with a local police officer, who told him that drug gangs are “not afraid of the blue anymore,” but they still fear the military uniforms of soldiers.
“By deploying the army, the state demonstrates its willingness to use all its power for the safety of its citizens,” he said, adding that soldiers will be deployed in mixed units with police.
Although Quintin denied that there are any “no-go zones in Belgium yet, he warned that “there are places where it is difficult and that we are in danger of losing.”
Hellbound and Down 