TheChek News Flow

Justice minister calls for EU extradition agreements to help catch kingpins

Cocaine trafficking is an “even bigger” challenge than terrorism in Belgium, said the country’s justice minister, who called on the EU to speed up international co-operation to help catch drug lords hiding abroad.

Vincent Van Quickenborne told the Financial Times that the EU needs joint extradition agreements and increase co-operation among ports to combat international trafficking networks. Belgium’s port city of Antwerp is the largest cocaine trafficking hub in Europe, with a record of almost 110 tonnes seized last year, up from about 90 tonnes in 2021 and 66 tonnes in 2020, according to customs authorities.

“What the fight was against Islamist terrorism seven/eight years ago is now today the fight against organised crime,” Van Quickenborne said, adding that “the magnitude [of drug trafficking] is even bigger” than terrorism because of the hundreds of thousands of users across Europe who have “blood on their noses”.

Van Quickenborne is under police protection after criminal gangs attempted to kidnap him and his family last September

Cocaine seizures in Belgium in the first half of 2023 rose 21 per cent compared to the same period in 2022, and customs authorities expect another record year.

Antwerp’s growth as a smuggling hub is a result of its sprawling size, which makes it difficult to control, as well as a large amount of container shipments arriving from Latin America, where cocaine production has increased over the past seven years.

In February, the Belgian government announced new measures to fight the criminal networks, including appointing a dedicated drugs commissioner, more than 200 additional staff for police and customs, new container scanning equipment as well as background checks on 16,000 port employees.

Cocaine smuggling has risen since 2017. Belgian police spent “a lot of energy” on counter-terrorism in the wake of 2016 attacks on Brussels, the minister said. But drug trafficking was now “on the top of every government [agenda] in Europe”, he said.

In recent years, several kingpins overseeing the illegal trade have moved to locations including the United Arab Emirates and Turkey to evade prosecution. Authorities in Belgium and other EU countries had struggled to get them extradited, Van Quickenborne said. His country signed an extradition accord with the UAE in 2021, which so far has proved ineffective.

“There should be more European pressure on the Emirates,” Van Quickenborne said. “If I talk to my colleagues in Italy, Spain, Germany, France, they all have a wish list of the people that are hiding in Dubai and they are not able to move to see them extradited to Europe.”

Extradition or other legal agreements facilitating cross-border prosecution “coming out of Europe instead of on a bilateral basis could help us to put pressure on Dubai,” he said. He also called for a “network of port prosecutors” to exchange information.

Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Belgian ministers met in Antwerp in June to discuss organised crime, where they signed a declaration supporting an EU-wide approach.

The European Commission declined to comment on Van Quickenborne’s call for action but said it was “engaged in stepping up the efforts against drug trafficking, including cocaine in the EU”.

The flexibility of criminal groups means they could increasingly move to different European ports, such as Hamburg, Le Havre and Valencia to evade tighter measures in Antwerp, according to Europol.

Van Quickenborne warned that it would be difficult to completely stamp out the drug trade, but said he was “very determined to continue our fight . . . [and] eradicate these drug criminals”.

Aslef’s Mick Whelan under pressure to go ‘harder and faster’ in long-running dispute

The UK train drivers’ union is preparing to intensify its campaign of strike action this autumn as hopes fade of reaching a deal to end more than a year of industrial action.

Mick Whelan, head of Aslef, said further strikes were inevitable in a long-running row over pay and working conditions with train companies in England and the government.

The union’s executive committee will meet on Friday to discuss its next steps and Whelan said he was under pressure from members to go “harder and faster”.

“It is going to happen, it is about how quickly we step it up and what we do. But the view is we will be taking more action,” Whelan said.

Aslef has rejected an offer of an 8 per cent pay rise over two years, tied to sweeping changes to drivers’ working lives, such as more flexible shift rostering and overtime work.

The union has not held talks with train companies since April, or the government, which controls the industry’s finances, since January.

Separate talks between the rail industry and RMT union — which rejected a 9 per cent two-year pay deal earlier this year — have also stalled, leaving passengers facing the prospect of strikes dragging on throughout the rest of the year.

Train drivers have virtually closed the rail network through one-day strikes 11 times over the past year and also caused significant disruption through five weeks of bans on drivers clocking on for overtime.

“The longer it goes on without any contact from the government or any of the employers to resolve the situation, we may have to go harder and faster to make our voice heard,” Whelan said.

Aslef is demanding a significantly higher pay deal, particularly as its members have not had a pay rise since 2019.

Whelan added that the union could consider a permanent ban on overtime work, which would cause sweeping disruption as many train companies rely on drivers working extra hours.

Ministers and train companies have long said the industry cannot afford higher pay rises and must impose changes to working practices following a decline in revenue amid a shift to homeworking which was accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Passenger numbers have steadily increased over the past year but journeys by commuters on peak hour trains have been the slowest to return.

Total passenger revenue in the first quarter of the year, the most recent for which data is available, was £2.2bn, down more than a third from the £3.2 billion in the same quarter four years ago, according to the Office of Rail and Road, an industry regulator.

The Department for Transport said the government had facilitated “fair and reasonable pay offers”. “Union leaders should stop blocking their members from having a vote on these offers and give them the chance to help resolve this dispute,” it added.

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, said more strikes would be “unnecessary”, and also called on Aslef to instead put its “fair and reasonable” pay offer to members.

“We urge the Aslef leadership to acknowledge the substantial financial challenges facing the rail industry and collaborate with us to achieve a more dependable and robust railway system for the future,” it said.

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