Drugs Commissioner Ine Van Wymersch: ‘If we do nothing, we will become a narco-state’

She sends cocaine to the incinerator faster and fights drug criminals with crime money. Drugs commissioner Ine Van Wymersch has been making it as difficult as possible for drug bosses in Belgium for a year now. ‘As long as we don’t crack the business model, production will continue to run.’

The office of the National Drugs Commissioner can be found in a discreet location. There is no sign on the door, the address is not online for security reasons. Drugs Commissioner Ine Van Wymersch is guarded around the clock. Want to take a portrait photo at the window for this interview? Her bodyguards advise against that. The view in the background could give away the location.

About a year ago, Van Wymersch started the – rather risky – job as drugs commissioner. A position that did not exist before: the federal government established the drug commissariat after a shooting in Merksem in Antwerp, in which a girl of barely 11 years old was killed.

Van Wymersch gave up her position as public prosecutor of the Halle-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office. ‘I exchanged a well-defined, clear mandate for an empty page. The position of drug commissioner still had to be given substance,” she says. ‘The first few weeks I was there with only one colleague. We had thirty meetings with partners and experts, and asked them all the same question: how can a national office of the drug commissioner help you in your daily work?’

From Wymersch: ‘Absolute. We have worked intensively with Sophie Lavaux in Brussels (Director General of the Brussels security agency safe.brussels, ed.) to make a plan to tackle the drug problem, both through repression and through assistance and prevention. We are not here to take over, but we are a neutral sounding board for policymakers. They didn’t have that before.’

‘Together with the cabinet of Flemish Minister of Justice Zuhal Demir (N-VA), we have ensured fast lane at the incinerator. The vehicles with seized drugs no longer have to wait in line between the traditional waste companies. We also came up with the idea for a ‘explosive case’ for cocaine, which immediately disables drugs when customs confiscates them on the quay. You can arm customs officers more heavily, but we are facing criminals who will stop at nothing. We need to move towards a system in which criminals know that if the Belgians find your cocaine, they will immediately ‘mix it into mayonnaise’ on the quay. VITO is now investigating this, but the idea comes from here. We have the time to think about these kinds of questions and sit around the table.’

‘Cabinets regularly ask us for advice. When we write a report on the dangers of fentanyl, it is read by everyone. They look for input from the field and from experts. We bring all that expertise and ideas together. In just one year we have been able to take a unique position in the security world.’

From Wymersch: ‘We don’t know what to think about that. I could say that the efforts are paying off, but we don’t know how big it is darknumber is that which we do not see. However, we have received information from the criminal world that the seizures are making them nervous. They exceed the calculated risk, which is disturbing for the criminals.’

From Wymersch: ‘Violence in Brussels is increasing because there is a battle for territory. You can still make a lot of money selling drugs. Every square meter counts. Drug gangs in the capital easily find vulnerable people to work with: homeless people, young people and people with a range of problems and no future. They act as disposable forces for the gangs, who see them as completely expendable. Those who have less to lose use more violence. And young people with no experience with weapons shoot not once, but twenty times.’

From Wymersch: ‘The idea that the judiciary does nothing with minors is wrong. The approach of the youth public prosecutors is not bad. They have to appear before the youth magistrate, who monitors them very closely. A closed youth institution is certainly not a scout camp.’

“I don’t think the severity of the penalties is our biggest concern. The penalties for adults who deal drugs are already quite hefty, especially if you compare them with the Netherlands. Increasing punishments can also have perverse effects. In Sweden they increased prison sentences for adult dealers, which made gangs use young people even more often.’

‘A different approach is needed for those who commit crimes under the influence. You have to make sure the addiction stops. For example, violence against police officers very often comes from perpetrators who are under the influence. There is also a group with mental problems, who often use different substances together, for which they require treatment in a specialized and secure institution. The prison does not solve their problems, at least not without investments in assistance and prevention. And that is not the reality today.’

From Wymersch: ‘I think we are already moving in that direction, by working more with alternative punishments for a certain type of perpetrator. Our justice system is individual and judges on a case-by-case basis. The new criminal code allows for more customization and alternative punishments.’

‘If I have learned one thing over the past year, it is that supply determines demand. As long as criminal organizations can make money from selling drugs, they will find users. I sometimes hear that we don’t have to worry about fentanyl here, because heroin users here would be less likely to switch like in the US. I don’t think that’s realistic. If it is interesting for criminal organizations to sell it, we will see it pop up here. That will not come from the user. As long as we don’t crack the business model, production will continue to run. That’s why the strategy is follow the money – the investigation into the heritage and seizures of goods – so important.’

From Wymersch: ‘We must continue to protect the privacy of citizens who mean well. But I do ask parliamentarians to think about how we can do that, while at the same time protecting the democratic constitutional state. If we do nothing and reinterpret privacy laws, we will become a narco-state.

‘If an investigating judge ordered a telephone tap in the past, investigators listened to all conversations. The pertinent conversations were included in the file. Everyone was okay with that. Today we can still eavesdrop, but no one speaks on that phone anymore.’

‘We must make the power of the investigating judge relevant again. We cannot possibly deny an investigating judge access to encrypted communications under the guise of privacy. Who are we actually protecting?’

‘We are currently studying concrete proposals for politicians. Players such as Telegram and Snapchat should cooperate with the police and the judiciary. That should be a condition if they want to be active on the European market.’

From Wymersch: ‘We have taken the first steps towards a fund with which we can reinvest money from drug criminals in the police, justice, customs and health care. That would earn us an estimated 40 million euros. That fund has not been created this legislature, but everyone agrees that the next government will introduce such a system asset recovery must set up.’

‘In addition, the government should not only invest in traditional and financial investigators, but also strengthen undercover work and human intelligence. My travels to source countries have shown me that direct contact on the spot is useful. We need to think about the use of liaison officers. If police, customs and justice work together, we can easily cover a large part of the world. The drug commissariat can also play a role in this collaboration.’