A Brussels court of appeal has sentenced 33 defendants in the "Black Eagle" drug case to prison terms ranging from two to 15 years, while a 34th defendant received 300 hours of community service.
The 34 individuals were charged with being members or leaders of a criminal organisation that smuggled cocaine worth hundreds of millions of euros from South America to Belgium and the rest of Europe between 2018 and 2022.
The investigation began in September 2020 when Belgian investigators discovered a large quantity of acetone and approximately 600 kilos of diluted cocaine during a search of a garage in Brussels. The breakthrough in the case came in 2021 when the encrypted messaging service Sky ECC was cracked, revealing a network led by Albanian cousins Alfredo H. and Indrit K.
These organisations collaborated to smuggle cocaine on a large scale from Latin America to Europe, using sea ports in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, as well as air transport.
The cocaine was chemically mixed with various legal substances such as fruit, cement, or coal, and once in Europe, it was extracted and purified in drug labs.
According to the court, the network had earned a staggering 659 million euros from drug trafficking between 2018 and 2022.
In June 2024, Alfredo H. and Indrit K. were initially sentenced to nine years each, while several other defendants received prison sentences ranging from four to six years. Two received community service.
The court has now imposed harsher penalties, with Alfredo H. and Indrit K. both receiving 15-year prison sentences, and only one defendant, the wife of Indrit K., receiving a community service sentence of 300 hours.
