The two explosions in Antwerp on the night of Monday to Tuesday can be linked to a hijacked drug deal in the city earlier this year.
Antwerp-North was rocked awake by two explosions in the early hours of Tuesday, as explosives were set off at houses in the Hollandstraat and the Osystraat.
According to reporting by Het Laatste Nieuws, one of the houses targeted could be linked to the fugitive drug dealer Xavier P. The building was the target of a large attack with explosives in Antwerp back in 2023. In that attack, 20 homes were damaged by the blast.
P. was convicted of smuggling drugs into Belgium at the start of the year. While he received an eight-year prison sentence, he remains at large as police were too late to arrest him before he fled to southern Europe.
Despite a warrant for his arrest, P. allegedly brokered a drug deal last summer. A shipment of 800 kg of cocaine was smuggled into Belgium through the Port of Antwerp and brought to an abandoned warehouse south of the city.
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As the drugs were being divided, a minivan entered the warehouse, and three armed men got out. They held the guards at gunpoint and managed to get away with the entire shipment.
P. and two accomplices provided the location of the warehouse and were immediately suspected of leaking its location to a rival drug gang. One of P.'s accomplices was kidnapped and interrogated, but released shortly after.
The gang that lost its drugs still suspects P. to be the one giving away the location of the deal, but can't target him in his hiding space.
Instead, they have now targeted his parents' place in the Osystraat with an attack with explosives. The assailants wrote an insult directed at P. on the facade of the building.
