6 held as 11.5 tonnes of cannabis resin seized at Brussels market
Belgian federal police seized 11.5 tonnes of cannabis resin from a container at Brussels' Mabru wholesale food market on 18 May 2020. Six people were arrested and two were later charged with drug importation; prosecutors put the market value at about 114 million euros.
🇧🇪 Marché matinal de Bruxelles (Mabru), Brussels · Belgium
Belgian federal police seizedcannabis resin at Brussels’ main wholesale food
market on Monday 18 May 2020.[1][2]Six people were arrested in the operation, as
announced by the Brussels prosecutor.[1][2]After questioning on Monday by the
federal judicial police, the six suspects were to be heard within 48 hours by an
investigating judge ruling on detention.[1]
The drugs were in a container intercepted at dawn at the Marché matinal de
Bruxelles (Mabru), the wholesale food platform serving traders and restaurant
owners.[1][2]Special federal police units carried out the intervention under an
investigating judge in a drug-trafficking investigation.[1][3]
Mabru management said the load was aboard a truck and not in the market’s own
infrastructure and that the case was unrelated to market activity.[4][2]The
Mabru wholesale market in Laeken operates at night into the early morning and
mainly serves professional food retailers.[5]
Two of the six suspects were charged with importing narcotics as part of an association and placed under arrest warrants on 20 May 2020.[3]The suspects were not traders at the Marché matinal but street market-gardeners who rented a refrigerated storage space there.[3]
Photos and video
Drugs stored in a container intercepted at the Marché matinal de Bruxelles (Mabru). Photo: HO / Douanes Francaises / AFPPhoto details
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Source: CNEWSPress photo published with the report on the Mabru seizure, credited to Photo News; its caption names no subject and does not establish that it shows the seized container. Photo: Photo NewsPhoto details
The first report said more than 11 tonnes while the prosecutor later gave 11.5 tonnes; the report uses 11.5 tonnes as the final official figure.
The outcome for the four other arrested suspects beyond the 48-hour judicial hearing was not reported in the cited sources.
No separate court outcome beyond the two arrest warrants reported on 20 May 2020 was published in the cited sources.
References to a 45-tonne Antwerp seizure in 2007 and a 52.6-tonne Cordoba seizure in 2013 are separate earlier events left out of this report.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in RTBF: Two of the six were later charged with importing narcotics as part of an association and placed under arrest warrants.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in RTBF: Those held were not market traders but street market-gardeners who rented refrigerated storage at Mabru for goods bought from its traders.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in RTBF: Police seized 11.5 tonnes of cannabis resin with an estimated market value of about 114 million euros.
No court outcome beyond the two arrest warrants of 20 May 2020 was reported in the opened sources.
The Le Soir photograph is captioned only with the agency Photo News and is not established to show the seized container.
A prisoner at Marneffe returned from temporary leave with 7 grams of cannabis he had obtained while away. Prison guards quickly found it during a search, and the prisoner said he needed it to sleep.
Police in the Bruxelles-Ouest zone seized 13.53 kg of cannabis and 8,670 euros in cash from an apartment in Jette after stopping a scooter rider on avenue de l'Exposition, and detained two suspects handed to the Brussels prosecutor's office.
Operation ATLAS NEXUS, led by Belgium's Federal Police and co-coordinated by Frontex, EMPACT and CARICOM IMPACS across 34 countries, ended with more than 490 arrests and the seizure of 118.6 tonnes of cannabis among 156.9 tonnes of drugs. National operations included a record 104.96 tonnes of cannabis in Paraguay and 3.2 tonnes in Costa Rica.
Brussels federal judicial police seized more than 500 kg of cannabis hidden in two Canada-origin pallets declared as clothing, arresting eight people on 27 August 2026. Four were remanded under arrest warrant, with vehicles, a jammer and phones also seized as the inquiry into the import network continues.
