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Belgium has 660 burglar gangs
After analysing more than 75,000 burglaries and attempted home invasions last year, the federal police have concluded that there are about 660 burglar gangs active in Belgium, reports Het Nieuwsblad.
"These criminal groups consist of at least three persons, but they have an average of five to 10 members in total. We have identified 2,003 of the 2,444 members of these groups. The average member is between 20 and 30 years old, and one in five is a minor," said Eddy De Raedt, head of the federal police cell in charge of ‘property crimes’.
Identification of the members confirmed the suspicion that many burglars come from Eastern Europe, and in particular Romania, writes Het Nieuwsblad. The risk of burglary is significantly higher in Wallonia than in Flanders, with the districts of Liege, Charleroi and Huy topping the list. Asse is the only Flemish district in the ranking.
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So action (if any ) are our Federal Police proposing to address this serious issue? Are the identified suspects being interviewed with the view of deporting them from Belgium for any other illegal activity? i.e. social security fraud?
@SILVERFLIPPER exactly. If the police have identified 2003 people, why aren't they being prosecuted / arrested / deported?
Residing in Bruxelles Ville and having my apartment robbed in the last year (let's not count the other 7 times my apartment, car, purse have been robbed in the past years), the BXL police have been totally inept. They take fingerprints and then tell me it costs 440 euros for the lab to do the work so it will not be done, the police arrive but ask me for paper and pen and have no form to complete, and the police tell they "joue le secretaire". I feel sure the robbers know they have "carte blanche" as the police are underpaid, understaffed, and have low morale. What to do?