Belgium at risk of becoming ‘narco-state’, judge warns

President of Antwerp court says international drug crime is posing danger to social stability International drug crime poses a danger to social stability in Belgium, a senior judge has said, after his colleague warned the country was evolving into “a narco-state” where mafia groups were forming “a parallel force” in society. Bart Willocx, the president of the Antwerp court of appeal, said Belgium was vulnerable to criminality from drug smuggling through the city’s vast port, one of the main entry points into Europe for cocaine smugglers. “The amount of money that is involved – to influence people, to corrupt people and to bribe – it is so big that it is really a danger for the stability of our society,” he told the Guardian in an interview at his court. Last October the Antwerp court took the unusual step of publishing an open letter from an anonymous investigative judge, who warned that Belgium was evolving into a narco-state. Extensive mafia structures had taken hold, the anonymous judge wrote, “becoming a parallel force that challenges not only the police, but the judiciary”. Willocx said Belgium was working to avoid becoming a narco-state: “But it is an