A court in Hasselt has sentenced eight men to a total of 138 months in prison for stealing prized racing pigeons from fanciers in Flanders.
The court granted six civil parties, a compensation set at €467,671. Prison terms for the convicted range from six to thirty months. The 46-year-old ringleader from Vilvoorde received the heaviest sentence of 30 months and a €1,600 fine.
Initially, €1.8 million in damages was sought, but the court reduced this amount. The convicts also must pay procedural costs totalling €23,546.
The court ordered the continued detention of three of the convicts.
The ringleader is under electronic monitoring, while three accomplices remain in pre-trial detention with sentences of 24, 20, and 18 months, along with fines of €800 each.
Four other defendants were sentenced in absentia to prison terms of 20, 10, 10, and 6 months. These individuals, family members of the group, assisted in hiding and transporting stolen pigeons to Romania. All eight perpetrators were Romanian nationals.
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained homing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance.
The time it takes the pigeon to cover the specified distance is measured, and the bird's rate of travel is calculated and compared with all of the other pigeons in the race to determine which animal returned at the highest speed.
The gang targeted pigeons with significant sporting and financial value, often shortly after they had won international awards. The thefts occurred between 2022 and January 2025. Some of the stolen pigeons were recovered in Vilvoorde and Romania.
