Brussels: 150 Shootings in a Year as Drug Violence Surges

Brussels Public Prosecutor Julien Moinil has revealed that more than 150 shootings and 22 explosions occurred in the Belgian capital over the past year, warning that escalating drug-related violence means anyone can become a victim. At a press conference on Friday, Moinil sounded the alarm with stark language: “At this moment, anyone can become a victim of drug violence at any time,” he said, according to VRT NWS.

A Record-Breaking Pace of Violence

The figures paint a grim picture of public safety in Brussels. Federal police recorded 57 shootings in the first seven months of 2026 alone, resulting in two deaths and 21 injuries, as The Brussels Times reported. The capital did not reach its 57th shooting of 2025 until mid-August, meaning this year is running roughly two weeks ahead of the previous record pace, according to Brussels Signal.

In all of 2025, Brussels recorded 101 shootings, resulting in eight deaths and 43 injuries - the previous worst year on record. With five months still remaining in 2026, the city is on course to shatter that grim milestone.

The first fatality of 2026 occurred in January when a 50-year-old man was shot in the back on Rue Gillon in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode. The second came in mid-July when a man died after being found seriously injured in Rue du Cheval Noir in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. Investigators suspect a link to the drug trade in both cases.

A Wave of Shootings in Four Days

The press conference follows a particularly violent week in Brussels. Between Friday and Monday, six shooting incidents occurred inside the Midi police zone covering Anderlecht, Forest, and Saint-Gilles, including an attack on an old police station in Anderlecht that Moinil called “inadmissible,” revealing what he described as a clear intention to destabilise the State, as BX1 reported.

The incidents included shots fired at the local police station in the Demosthenesstraat in Anderlecht, a shooting at the intersection of the Gustave Defnetstraat and Montenegrostraat in Saint-Gilles where a man was hit in the leg, a bullet piercing the window of an apartment where a resident was in bed, and multiple other shootings in the same area. On Monday night, a new incident with an automatic weapon left 18 bullet impacts counted at the same Saint-Gilles intersection.

Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the recent incidents, according to VRT NWS. Two individuals - one born in 2005 and one minor - were arrested in Saint-Gilles with two Kalashnikov war weapons, two handguns, and a magazine. A third suspect, a minor born in 2009 with no fixed residence in Belgium, was arrested in connection with a shooting in which a victim was wounded in the leg.

Drug Trafficking at the Core

The violence is primarily driven by drug trafficking networks. According to Brussels Signal, the city’s drug trade is largely run by organised networks of migrant background, among them groups of Moroccan, Albanian, and North African origin moving cocaine from the port of Antwerp into the capital. These networks recruit illegal migrants and minors as street dealers, lookouts, and gunmen, exploiting their precarious legal status to maintain control while senior figures often operate from abroad.

Moinil was blunt about the challenge: “As long as we haven’t neutralized the network leaders who are abroad, the situation will remain difficult to contain,” he said at the press conference. He also stressed that “the solution must not come only from the Justice system.”

Government Response: A National Emergency

The escalating violence has triggered an unprecedented institutional response. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin described the situation as a “national emergency,” noting that “the fact that a police station was targeted shows how serious the situation is,” as BX1 reported.

Following a Regional Security Council (Cores) meeting on Wednesday, authorities announced a package of measures: 40 additional police officers to strengthen street presence and investigative capacity, 20 mobile cameras in affected neighbourhoods, and round-the-clock coordination at safe.brussels. Six Brussels police zones were placed under a single Gold operational command, and an additional infantry platoon of about 50 police officers was deployed by the Interior Minister.

The mayors of Anderlecht, Saint-Gilles, and Forest had earlier demanded a federal action plan against the drug war, calling it “a national issue,” as VRT NWS reported. After the Cores meeting, Saint-Gilles Mayor Jean Spinette welcomed the newfound “national awareness” of the problem, though he remained cautious: “I’ve learnt to wait and see,” he said, according to BX1.

Political Tensions and Citizen Outrage

The crisis has become politically charged. Spinette called out what he described as the weaponisation of the shootings by the liberal MR party, saying: “My life and that of my fellow citizens are constantly in danger, but I see that politicians are exploiting the situation,” as The Brussels Times reported.

Meanwhile, citizens are mobilising. The anti-mafia non-profit Basta! - Italian for “enough” - has organised a rally scheduled for Sunday at Place de Bethleem in Saint-Gilles. The organisation warned: “Doesn’t this outrage you anymore? In a few days, organised crime crossed a particularly worrying threshold in Brussels: several vehicles set on fire as a warning, shots fired at a police station, two gun attacks injuring two people, in busy places and times.”

An open letter signed by 40 neighbourhood associations, shared by Le Soir, warned that “Brussels is not a narco-state. But every neglected neighbourhood, every criminal network we allow to flourish, every public order or judicial institution that is denied resources, brings us dangerously close to that.”

A Prosecutor’s Frustration

Moinil’s frustration with the pace of institutional response was palpable. He noted that prison signal jammers - requested since February 2025 - still have not been installed, calling the situation “Belgian surrealism.” He declared that “prison no longer deters” and demanded fundamental investment: “Taking small measures is fine, but we need fundamental investment,” he said, adding that he hoped the fight against drug trafficking would proceed faster than the renovation of the Palace of Justice.

This is not the first time Moinil has raised the alarm. At a similar press conference in August 2025, he warned that “everyone in Brussels can be hit by a stray bullet,” and criticised what he called “20, 30 years of laxity” that cannot be solved in six months, as VRT NWS reported at the time.

What’s Next

As Brussels confronts this escalating crisis, the key question is whether the newly announced measures will be sufficient to reverse the trend. Moinil was direct about the risks ahead: “Do you think it will calm down? No. Are there risks of new shootings? Yes. Are there risks for citizens? Yes. The stakes are enormous.”

The coming weeks will test whether the unprecedented coordination between police zones, the deployment of additional resources, and the political will demonstrated at the Cores meeting can translate into tangible improvements on the ground. For residents of the most affected neighbourhoods - Anderlecht, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Schaerbeek, Saint-Gilles, and the City of Brussels - the stakes could not be higher.