Belgian
ANNOUNCEMENTS•
The 11-year-old girl who was shot dead yesterday in a house near Antwerp, according to the Antwerp Gazette the granddaughter of one of arguably Belgium’s biggest drug traffickers.
This Othman El B. has lived in Dubai for years and from there will play a key role in the large-scale smuggling of cocaine through the port of Antwerp. He is under investigation in Belgium, but has not yet been convicted.
Her granddaughter died yesterday in a shooting in a house in Merksem, a district of Antwerp. She was with family members in a living space behind a garage door when she was targeted. Two others were slightly injured.
Fear of revenge
Antwerp’s mayor De Wever immediately indicated an agreement in the criminal circuit. “The affected family is known. There have been accidents there before,” he said. He spoke again of a war on drugs and said he was afraid of reprisals.
Gazet reporter Joris Van der Aa had contact with Othman El B. yesterday, he says against broadcaster VRT. “He says he doesn’t want to respond with violence and that he wants to work with the police and the judiciary to catch the perpetrators. But of course you can’t just take anyone’s word for it.” El B. denied Van der Aa having anything to do with drug trafficking.
