Brussels-North police seized 450 bottles of nitrous oxide from a warehouse in Mechelen on Wednesday 21 August. The discovery came during a search linked to the previous seizure of 358 liters of the same substance from a Schaerbeek bookstore on 10 August.
The bookstore’s manager was arrested following the first police discovery and handed over to the Brussels public prosecutor's office. He was not at the location at the time of the raid. The bookstore on Place Liedts was shut and remains sealed by police.
The investigation continued under an investigating judge's supervision. On Wednesday officers from the Brussels-North police zone arrested and detained the same manager.
Searches in a warehouse in Mechelen uncovered 248 three-litre cylinders of nitrous oxide and 202 smaller 0.85 litre cylinders of the same substance, taking the total volume to 915.7 litres. Officers also found 110,000 balloons typically used for inhaling the gas.
When used outside its normal purposes, primarily in cooking, nitrous oxide is commonly known as ‘laughing gas.’ Frequently abused by young people at festive gatherings to experience short-lived feelings of euphoria, repeated consumption of this gas has serious health implications.
