Huge Belgian police operation against car theft gang
Belgian police launched what has been described as the largest operation of it’s kind in Belgium in the last 20 years.
This week some 1,200 police in locations in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia swooped on an organised gang suspected of running a fraud ring to trick car owners out of their vehicles. French police also cooperated and searched seven premises just over the border.
The gang is thought to originate in Eastern Europe, and to belong to the Roma community. The police operation on Tuesday took in a number of caravan parks. Thirty arrests were made, and dozens of cars seized, as well as other property.
Victims described having received photos of the thieves showing off in the stolen cars, or receiving threats of violence if they took their case to the police.
