Brussels Encro trial: 119 convicted over cannabis and cocaine, up to 17 years
The Brussels criminal court convicted 119 people on 29 October 2024 in the Encro mega-trial over a cannabis and cocaine network dismantled in 2021-2022, with sentences from 14 months to 17 years. Cannabis plantations had been found in Belgian warehouses, but no weight was published for the cannabis.
🇧🇪 Brussels criminal court at the Justitia building, Haren, Brussels · Belgium
The court convicted 119 defendants, 115 people and the four companies, with
sentences from 14 months to 17 years, and acquitted nine people.[1]Eridan
Munoz Guerrero, the Albanian described as manager of cocaine-processing labs in
Brussels and arrested in October 2021, was sentenced to 14 years, when 19 had
been sought.[1]
Besides clandestine cocaine laboratories, cannabis plantations were also found
in warehouses in Belgium.[2]The cannabis element sits inside a case over a
wide international traffic in cocaine and cannabis that Belgian police
dismantled in 2021-2022 with forces from Italy and Germany.[3]
The file was named Encro because investigators relied heavily on decrypting the
Encrochat and Sky ECC messaging services.[2]The Belgian federal police broke
up the network at the end of 2021 after months of inquiry based on Sky ECC data,
operating between South America and Europe with Antwerp as a gateway.[4]
Defence lawyer Gilles Vanderbeck called the case a publicity stunt by the
federal prosecutor and said people had been artificially linked although they
had no connection.[1]The 220,000-page file was impossible to read in full,
lawyers said, and the judgement is open to appeal.[4]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
RTBFrtbf.beFREpilogue du méga procès Encro ciblant une centaine de narcotrafiquants
Europe 1europe1.frFRBelgique : épilogue dans un méga-procès ciblant une centaine de narcotrafiquants
L'Avenir (Belga)lavenir.netFRLe méga-procès Encro se referme avec une centaine de condamnations dans son sillage
Open questions the AI reported
No weight or plant count was published for the cannabis plantations found in Belgian warehouses, so no cannabis kilogram, plant or hectare figure is recorded.
The confiscation total of about 60 million euros covers the whole mixed network and is not a cannabis value, so it is excluded from figures.
Cocaine is the larger substance in the case; its quantities and the convoy routes through Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Le Havre cover the entire traffic and are not attributed to cannabis.
Belgian outlets give the size of the file as 128 defendants, or 124 individuals and four companies; the report names both counts and uses neither as a cannabis figure.
At least one appeal was reported by September 2025, so the first-instance sentences may change.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in RTBF: The Brussels criminal court delivered the Encro verdict at the Justitia building, the former NATO site in Haren converted into a courthouse for trials needing reinforced security.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Courrier international (AFP): Abdelwahab Guerni, an Algerian prosecuted as a presumed leader, received the heaviest sentence of 17 years after the prosecutor sought 20.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in L'Avenir (Belga): The prosecution asked for the immediate arrest of 58 convicted defendants, and 49 returned to a cell that evening.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in L'Avenir (Belga): The Belgian authorities counted 128 defendants, while they said elsewhere that 124 individuals and four companies were targeted; the federal police charged them on 30 June 2023.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in L'Avenir (Belga): The trial ran from 18 December 2023 to 7 May 2024, the court imposed about 700 years of prison in total and confiscations approaching 60 million euros.
A 25-year-old man from Izegem was sentenced after an undercover agent delivered a resealed postal parcel from Malaga holding 2.6 kilograms of cannabis. A house search added more than 100 grams of cannabis and 9,045 euros in cash, bringing a money-laundering charge, an 18-month largely suspended sentence and forfeiture of the cash.
The Mechelen police court declared a young Dutch man unfit to drive after he admitted in court that he still smoked cannabis every three days, and he had to hand in his driving licence immediately. The court fined him 1,600 euros, half suspended, imposed a 45-day driving ban and said he could only ask for his licence back after six months without drugs.
A 24-year-old man from Duffel was sentenced by the Mechelen criminal court to 120 hours of community service for selling liquid THC, a cannabis product used in e-cigarettes, from his grandparents' home in Mechelen. Police found him through a Snapchat-run delivery service, and the court ordered almost 3,000 euros confiscated.
A young man from Dilbeek was convicted in his absence and given a six-month suspended prison sentence for possessing 30 grams of cannabis found in his car after a speeding stop near Ternat. Investigators found he was not dealing and offered him a 400-euro settlement, which he did not pay, after which he was summoned and sentenced in absentia.
