The Brussels federal judicial police have arrested 27 people during a major operation against drug trafficking in and around the Peterbos neighbourhood in Anderlecht. The operation was primarily aimed at the “lower echelons” of a major criminal organisation that imports and sells drugs on a large scale, with police raiding various sales points and locations where the drugs were stored and packaged. “Dismantling this network was particularly complex, as it was active at several levels of the drug trafficking chain,” said the federal police. Investigators
were able to identify “dedicated logistical structures, storage facilities and organised distribution mechanisms”. Firearms, narcotics, tens of thousands of euros in cash, vehicles and numerous digital storage devices were seized. Ten of those arrested have since been remanded in custody by the investigating judge. A minor suspect was placed in a community institution for special youth care and another person was taken to a detention centre because he was residing in Belgium illegally. The investigation, initiated in 2025 under the authority of an investigating judge,
uncovered a network involved in the supply, storage, packaging and distribution of drugs destined for several outlets located in the Brussels district. The investigations focused in particular on the area around Saint-Guidon metro station and the Peterbos neighbourhood, which is known as a hotspot for drug-related crimes. According to sources close to the investigation, the arrested suspects can be linked to the criminal organisation led by Imad B., better known as ‘Mara’. He and 45 other suspects were referred to a criminal court last Friday
on charges of large-scale importation of cocaine from South America to Europe. Two minor suspects were referred to the juvenile court. Mara’s operation is thought to be linked to the drug mafia from Marseille in southern France. The 30-year-old was already sentenced in 2022 to eight years in prison in a major trial concerning drug trafficking in and around the Peterbos neighbourhood, along with 29 other defendants. The public prosecutor’s office said Mara continued to lead the criminal organisation from prison in recent years, using
a smartphone he had smuggled into his cell. The investigation led authorities to Panama, among other places, where several suspected business partners of Mara were identified. These suspects are alleged to have been responsible, among other things, for transporting the cocaine from South America to the European continent. Mara was also charged last year with a brutal mistaken identity murder in Anderlecht, in which a 31-year-old man was shot dead at the wheel of his Volkswagen Golf. An investigation reportedly revealed that Mara had ordered
the killing of the leader of a rival drug gang from prison, but the gunmen had mistaken their target. The Brussels public prosecutor’s office also investigated eight shootings linked to the drug trade.
Brussels, Peterbos, Anderlecht, drug trafficking, cocaine, arrests, federal police, Imad B., Mara, Saint-Guidon metro