The Liège Criminal Court has slapped prison sentences ranging from five to eight years on members of a criminal network involved in a vast drug trafficking case, the public prosecutor’s office in the Walloon city announced on Tuesday.
The sentences were handed down on 4 January, in one of the so-called ‘Sky ECC’ cases, named after the telephone operator whose encrypted messaging system, favoured by the criminals, was decrypted by police. This is the first time that a French-speaking court has handed down a verdict in one of the 394 such investigations in Belgium.
Two leaders of the network were sentenced to eight years in prison, and the confiscation of goods worth €400,000. Some key members are to serve five and six years in prison. Others were given shorter jail terms or partially suspended sentences. Four of the 26 defendants were acquitted.
The seizure of vehicles, luxury clothing and expensive watches with a combined value of €920,000 was also ordered.
Members of the network ran about 10 cannabis plantations, mostly in Wallonia – Waremme, Seraing, Liège, Angleur, Louveigné and Wandre – but also in Flanders (Beverlo) and in the Brussels Region (Forest).
The Resa utility had filed a civil action suit against them for electricity theft.
