A Dutch national was sentenced to 40 months in prison by the Brussels Criminal Court on Wednesday after being caught with nearly 17 kilograms of cocaine at Brussels Airport in mid-January.
The 42-year-old arrived in Brussels on 12 January from Curaçao, a Dutch island in the Caribbean. During a customs check, officials found 16.8 kilograms of cocaine in his luggage. He immediately confessed to the crime but refused to disclose who hired him, claiming he financed the trip himself.
He stated he was due to receive €1,000 per kilogram transported, a sum he claimed was necessary to address severe financial hardships. His lawyer argued that he acted out of a survival instinct due to his precarious living conditions, acknowledging that his client fully admitted his fault and suggested a light suspended sentence would be adequate.
The court, however, rejected this defence, highlighting the severity of his repeat offence, as he had a prior drug trafficking conviction in 2001. Consequently, he was sentenced to 40 months’ imprisonment.
