Europe

Brussels Drug Gang Shootings Leave EU’s Capital City Reeling

  • Justice minister calls fight against drugs an ‘uphill battle’
  • He says Albanian gangs use city as a hub for distribution

Forensics officers at the scene of a fatal shooting in Brussels on Feb. 14.

Photographer: Didier Lebrun/Getty Images
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Brussels, the European Union’s administrative capital, has been left reeling by a spate of drug-related shootings just a few blocks away from the city’s hordes of diplomats and bureaucrats.

“In the past few days we again have been confronted with crimes linked to drugs,” Belgian Justice Minister Paul Van Tigchelt told reporters on Thursday. “What has happened is simply unacceptable.”