A high-profile trial in Brussels, the Bressers-Carvalho case, has been underway for a month, examining an alleged international cocaine trafficking network. The proceedings are taking place in the Justitia courtroom, the former Nato headquarters, with 31 defendants present.
Among the defendants are Flor Bressers, a 40-year-old Belgian known as "the Finger cutter", and Sérgio Roberto de Carvalho, a 68-year-old Brazilian known as "the Brazilian Escobar". Bressers faces charges including kidnapping, unlawful detention, extortion involving firearms, and leading a criminal organisation. Carvalho was arrested in June 2022 in Budapest in a joint operation involving Interpol, Europol, Brazilian federal police, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Bressers and Carvalho are alleged to have been behind an organisation suspected of transporting up to 45 tonnes of cocaine to Europe. Prosecutors state they led a multinational operation that moved hundreds of millions of dollars, allegedly laundered through cryptocurrencies, financial markets, and property. This money reportedly financed the logistics for transporting cocaine from Peru and Bolivia to Europe.