On Friday 17 July 2026 the Brussels criminal court convicted thirteen members of an Albanian criminal organisation of drug offences linked to at least five cannabis plantations found in 2025, La DH and Bruxelles Today reported.[1][2] The thirteen received prison sentences of between three and eight years; a fourteenth defendant was sentenced to 100 hours of community work.[1][2]
The case began in January 2025 when police called to two armed men trying to enter a garage in Jette found more than a thousand cannabis plants; one suspect said he had come from Albania to tend the crop.[1][2] Phone analysis, wiretaps and surveillance then exposed four further plantations in Auderghem, Schaerbeek, Marchienne-au-Pont and Ans, rented under false identities.[1][2]
Press reports said the group paid Albanian workers about 5,000 to 8,000 euros for roughly two months of cultivation, stored harvests in several Brussels municipalities and earned about seven million euros, partly from shipments to the United Kingdom.[1][2] Investigators alleged the suspected leader continued to organise plantations by phone from detention and even moved cannabis into Merksplas removal centre while awaiting expulsion.[1][2] The prosecutor described Brussels as a hub for Albanian organised crime.[1][2]
Several defendants had prior drug convictions in Belgium or abroad, the reports said.[1][2]