Can Belgium stop Brussels drug bosses from directing violence from prison?

Belgian Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden told parliament on Wednesday, 2 September, that mobile-phone jammers would be installed within a week in the “high-value target” wing of Haren prison in Brussels. The announcement followed a warning from Brussels prosecutor Julien Moinil that alleged drug bosses can retain their power after incarceration, using illicit telephones to manage trafficking and commission violence beyond the prison walls.

For people living and working in Brussels—including the international community clustered around Belgium’s federal and EU institutions—the immediate issue is public safety in the city, not its symbolic status as Europe’s capital. The Brussels prosecutor’s office counted 69 shootings during 2026 by 28 August, following 102 in 2025. Moinil said the latest wave began on 20 August and involved a cycle of reprisals between two criminal structures active in the drug trade. Recent incidents affected Saint-Gilles, Anderlecht and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean; one included gunfire directed at a police station in Anderlecht.

At his 28 August press conference, held alongside federal judicial police director Eric Jacobs and Brussels-Midi police chief Jurgen De Landsheer, Moinil said ordinary residents could be struck by gunfire. La DH reported that he cited a father left paralysed after being shot in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in April and a 20-year-old bystander wounded in July. Investigations remain open, and authorities have not established publicly that every shooting recorded this year was drug-related.

The prison problem turns arrests into an incomplete answer. BRUZZ reported that investigators believe the suspected commissioner of a July killing in Molenbeek’s Rue du Cheval Noir was already detained at Haren. The allegation has not been tested at trial. Five major prison searches found 85 mobile phones, Verlinden told the parliamentary committees, illustrating how detained leaders may preserve communications with networks outside.

Moinil’s prescription is direct: prevent illicit phones from functioning, rather than relying solely on searches to stop them entering. He has sought jamming technology for roughly a year and a half. Verlinden’s promise answers that demand initially, but only as a test in one Haren unit. Grégory Wallez of the socialist public-services union CGSP welcomed the step while arguing that the same problem exists across Belgian prisons and requires a concrete system-wide response.

The dispute is also about capacity. Moinil says police and judicial services lack the staff and resources needed to dismantle entrenched networks. Verlinden offered a somewhat different diagnosis in parliament: according to BRUZZ, she said the Brussels prosecution service’s magistrate establishment was filled, while the sharpest shortage concerned supporting judicial personnel. She announced five jurists, a criminologist, an attaché and eleven legal assistants, and said she would seek additional justice funding. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin has meanwhile defended federal reinforcements and warned that there is no single remedy.

That difference matters. The prosecutor frames the crisis as an operational emergency requiring investigators, secure detention and approximately €10 million in additional resources. Verlinden argues that justice cannot solve it alone and has also pointed to addiction, homelessness and the social conditions that make recruitment easier. These approaches need not be mutually exclusive, but their competing emphasis—enforcement capacity versus a broader security and prevention policy—will shape where scarce money goes.

Brussels is one local market within a European trafficking system. The EU Drugs Agency says Antwerp and Rotterdam are among the continent’s principal cocaine gateways, while criminal networks increasingly use online platforms to organise distribution and recruit young people for intimidation or violence. In June, the Council of the EU backed an action plan emphasising financial investigations, cooperation with technology companies, protection of ports and better information-sharing. Those measures address supply chains and criminal finance; they do not replace Belgium’s responsibility to secure its prisons and neighbourhoods.

The next test is practical. Authorities must establish whether the Haren jammers operate without disrupting lawful communications, whether they can be extended to other wings and prisons, and whether detainees adapt through new technology. Parliament must also decide whether the promised staff and funding match the scale of the cases. Arrest totals and equipment announcements will count for little if imprisoned leaders can still transmit orders—or if the shootings continue.