Belgian bunnies will be a treat for children around the world this Easter weekend, but not all are molded with the country’s famous chocolate praline.
A batch seized this week at Brussels international airport was made from a block of MDMA intended to be converted into pills of ecstasy, a drug used during raves (techno parties), explained to AFP Pol Meuleneire, 61, a Belgian customs veteran.
Considered as a gateway to Europe for cocaine manufactured in Latin America, Belgium has also become a hub for synthetic drugs manufactured in Europe and shipped around the world by post.
Pol Meuleneire, who is due to retire in a few months, recounted how times have changed from when he started his career, when finding just 10 grams of cannabis in an envelope aroused the excitement of customs officials.
Today, his workspace in an office block in the cargo area of ??Brussels Airport is overflowing with suspicious packages and bags and jars full of illegal pills and powders.
“In 2022, we seized nearly six tonnes of drugs at the airport,” said Florence Angelici, spokesperson for the kingdom’s federal public finance service.
“It’s circulating all over the world. Today, people can order online on the dark web with just a few clicks and have it delivered to their home,” she points out.
The fake chocolate bunnies intercepted at the Brussels airport cargo terminal had been packed and posted in Belgium in a package bound for Hong Kong.
Mr. Meuleneire pressed his handheld scanner – a Raman spectroscope, which can identify substances by their chemical fingerprint – against the base of a chocolate-colored rabbit. The screen flashed green and the scan was clear: “Caution, MDMA (ecstasy)”.
During the visit of AFP journalists, Mr. Meuleneire discovered several other illicit products in packages received last week, which he opened with his cutter.
A “Peppa Pig” branded lunch box destined for New Zealand seemed normal at first glance, but the packaging was too heavy to be nothing but cardboard and plastic. It was filled with ketamine, an anesthetic used as a recreational drug.
This substance is one of the illegal exports most often discovered at the airport postal centre.
But the customs officers find everything. A little chemist’s box – a children’s game – contained a bag of crystal meth, an illegal and addictive synthetic stimulant.
The cocaine is hidden in plastic packages between two layers of cardboard packaging, which weighs down the package and makes it suspicious for an experienced customs officer.
Antwerp in Belgium is the main port of entry into Europe for cocaine from Latin America. Some of it is re-exported by post to countries like Australia, where it sells for more.
Venezuelan gangs that export narcotics to Europe in turn import synthetic drugs, such as crystal methamphetamine, from Belgium. They are manufactured in laboratories in the Netherlands and Belgium, explain the Belgian customs.
Ketamine, MDMA and methamphetamine are concealed in everyday objects or in jars labeled as vitamin supplements and then shipped from ordinary post offices located in Belgium, France or Germany.
“Smugglers use mules to transport packages and post them around the world,” explains Florence Angelici.
At Brussels airport, a computerized platform selects packages based on known suspicious characteristics and customs officers get to work scanning them and, in some cases, opening them.
Among the most surprising discoveries, Pol Meuleneire shows portraits of Christ whose frames were stuffed with drugs, teddy bears full of pills and copper pipes filled with veterinary tranquilizers.
07/04/2023 11:18:38 – Bruxelles (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
