Brussels court jails 18 over eleven cannabis plantations and €5.66m seizures
On 19 May 2026 the Brussels criminal court sentenced eighteen members of a criminal group after Bruxelles-Ouest police raids in early 2025 dismantled eleven cannabis sites with 7,380 plants, seized 23 kg of cannabis and assets worth about €5.66 million; combined prison terms totalled 87 years.
🇧🇪 Brussels-Capital Region · Belgium
·
Charged
18
Plants destroyed
7,380
Cannabis
23 kg
The Brussels criminal court convicted eighteen people on 19 May 2026 for large-scale drug production
by a criminal organisation after an inquiry by the Bruxelles-Ouest police zone, Le Soir and
Bruxelles Today reported on 1 June.[1][2] The combined prison sentences amounted to eighty-seven
years, with €110,900 in fines imposed on seventeen defendants.[1][2]
At the start of 2025 investigators carried out twenty-one searches that dismantled eleven cannabis
plantations with a total capacity of 7,380 plants, the police summary quoted by both outlets said.[1][2] They seized twenty-three kilograms of cannabis along with cocaine, cash, vehicles, firearms
and forged papers, valued at about €5,659,944 in confiscations.[1][2]
The network used thirteen buildings in Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders, including sites named in
Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Lasne, Watermael-Boitsfort, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Mons, Fontaine-l’Évêque,
Herent, Gosselies, Rixensart, Bertrix, Soignies and Jette.[1][2]
Press reports give combined sentences of 87 years and €110,900 in fines for seventeen defendants but do not list each person’s term.
The investigation also seized 651 g of cocaine, €50,000 cash, five vehicles, two firearms and forged documents; those items are outside cannabis-only totals here.
Thirteen properties in Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders hosted grows; plant capacity is reported as 7,380 across eleven sites raided in early 2025, not necessarily on the sentencing date.
The court in Turnhout sentenced 34-year-old K.S. from Geel to 20 months in prison, suspended, for dealing cannabis. Kempenland police had stopped him in Peer in November 2025 and later found more cannabis, cash and dealing messages at his home.
The Bruges court sentenced a Blankenberge mother and her son to 250 and 150 hours of community service for drug dealing, while her former partner received two years in prison in his absence. A 2024 house search found 20 grams of cannabis, with prosecutors describing weekly cannabis sales alongside cocaine and speed dealing since 2021.
The Brussels criminal court sentenced thirteen members of an Albanian criminal group on 17 July 2026 to between three and eight years in prison for cannabis grown at five sites found in 2025; a fourteenth defendant received 100 hours of community service.
On 5 March 2026 the Brussels criminal court jailed four men for a cannabis grow in a rented villa on Wezelstraat in Grimbergen. Three received 36 months and one received 24. Police had found the plants on 22 August 2024.