The federal prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday morning that nine people were arrested last week and last Monday in an investigation into the import of cocaine from South America. According to sources, one of the arrested people is from The Standard Paul Vandemeulebroucke.
The arrested suspects are said to have planned to set up new drug lines, including by using helicopters for transport abroad.
Helicopter pilot Luc B., the man behind the well-known helicopter company Heliventure from Lint, was also arrested in the investigation. Last year he was also arrested during a police operation against large-scale drug smuggling with helicopters.
Also suspected in another drug file
Vandemeulebroucke, once one of Antwerp’s best-known criminal lawyers, was disbarred from the Antwerp bar in February 2022 after being sentenced to twelve months in prison for membership of a criminal organization. He is said to have been too close to a drug client he was defending.
Later that year, Vandemeulebroucke was sentenced to another three years in prison in a similar case. But in May 2023, the appeals court overturned that conviction, because the police allegedly wrongly overheard conversations between the lawyer and a client.
Today Vandemeulebroucke is also a suspect in a drugs file involving his former client Flor Bressers and the water purification company Kriva Rochem. That file concerns the smuggling of 16 tons of cocaine. That case would go to trial this year.
Two other suspects in the Kriva Rochem case who were on parole were said to have been arrested in recent days in the new ‘helicopter case’. This concerns Blorim R. and Bart P..
Hans Van Themsche
As a lawyer, Vandemeulebroucke was a gifted litigator. He defended, among others, serial killer Hans Van Themsche and Danny Vanhamel, the kidnapper of Anthony De Clerck.
Whether Vandemeulebroucke will be arrested will become clear during the day. His lawyers have not yet responded.
