Trial of Flor Bressers and Sergio Roberto de Carvalho resumes Monday

The trial of two major figures in organized crime, Flor Bressers and Brazilian national Sergio Roberto de Carvalho, resumes Monday at the Justitia courthouse in Haren, Brussels. The hearing will be an introductory session after the proceedings were interrupted in February, when three Bruges judges were recused.

The investigation began in late 2019, when federal police discovered that Antwerp-based water-treatment company Kriva Rochem was allegedly involved in importing cocaine from Brazil. In April 2020, authorities seized 3.2 tonnes of cocaine at the port of Rotterdam. The drugs had been hidden in containers carrying manganese. The company’s 80-year-old director and members of his family living in Knokke-Heist were arrested in June 2020.

Investigators later intercepted conversations on encrypted phones. Those discussions suggested that the organization may have imported almost 13 tonnes of cocaine, valued at 347 million euros, with net profits of 260 million euros. Europol said in late November 2020 that 45 tonnes of cocaine may have passed through European ports in six months. An international operation led to arrests in Brazil, Belgium, Spain and Dubai.

Bressers, a Limburger described as one of the organization’s key figures, was arrested in Switzerland in February 2022 and has remained in custody. De Carvalho, described as a Brazilian drug lord, was arrested in Hungary in June 2022 and extradited to Belgium a year later.

Thirty-one suspects have been sent before the criminal court, including alleged lieutenants, Bressers’ partner and former lawyer Pol Vandemeulebroucke. Federal prosecutors allege that Vandemeulebroucke exchanged numerous messages with Bressers to pass him documents from the Kriva Rochem case while Bressers was still on the run. Dutch lawyer Cem Polat is also prosecuted over the alleged sharing of confidential Dutch police records.

The proceedings have been postponed several times. One delay followed a September dispute between lawyer Louis De Groote and the court president after the lawyer was denied the floor, refused to comply and was removed from the courtroom. The judges assigned to the case were subsequently recused, forcing the trial to restart with a new panel.