Drug gang-related violence in Brussels has spiraled so far out of control that authorities are turning to the military to restore order. The Belgian government announced over the weekend that soldiers will be deployed to the capital.

The surge in violence — driven largely by North African drug gangs, including the notorious multinational “Morco Mafia” — has forced drastic measures in the multicultural city, where nearly 40 percent of residents are foreign nationals. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin told De Standaard:

“We cannot afford to lose territory. The army must defend the integrity of our land. Normally, military personnel do this at the borders or abroad. But the war on drug crime is also about defending our own territory.”

He added that “only the modalities still need to be worked out,” insisting that “anyone who doesn’t see an emergency situation now has been living on another planet in the last year,” according to the report by Breitbart.

🇧🇪 Army-police patrols are being introduced in Brussels due to escalating armed violence from clan wars between drug trafficking networks

Since January, 57 shootings have occurred, including 20 this summer, with at least two deaths and several serious injuries.

The Brussels… pic.twitter.com/OhOXVQahlc

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 8, 2025

Quintin said he was inspired by a conversation with a local police officer, who told him that gangs “no longer fear the blue, but they still fear the soldiers’ uniform.”

„Deploying the army demonstrates that the state is ready to use its full strength to protect citizens’ safety, he argued,

– adding that soldiers will be deployed alongside police in mixed patrols.

Although Quintin denied that there are no-go zones in Belgium, he warned that there are areas where the situation is difficult, and that “there is a risk we could lose them”. The Belgian capital is suffering from a severe wave of violence; this summer alone 20 people have been shot, and since the start of the year a total of 57. Julien Moinil, the Brussels prosecutor, stated last month that 6,211 adults and 874 minors have been arrested this year, a threefold increase compared with 2024.

Mr. Moinil said that among those arrested, 1,250 are suspected drug dealers, with rival gangs frequently engaging in territorial battles, often involving shootouts with Kalashnikovs.

Nevertheless, the prosecutor called for stricter security in prisons to prevent gang leaders who are actually incarcerated from continuing to issue orders from behind bars. Mr. Moinil also urged a much faster process for expelling foreign criminals from Belgium.

Minors among those arrested

The Belgian prosecutor’s office has already launched investigations in more than two hundred cases involving minors, and in 2025 that figure has already exceeded 800 in total.

Brussels chief prosecutor Julien Moinil explained at the beginning of August that this year 6,211 adult and 874 juvenile suspects had been brought before prosecutors — three times as many as in 2024. This includes 1,250 suspected drug dealers.

#Belgium 🇧🇪: Two gunmen carried out a shooting attack at Clemenceau station in the city of #Brussels (#Bruxelles).

Perpetrators seemingly armed with a possible #Romania-made 🇷🇴 ‘PM md. 65’ assault rifle and an AR-15/M4 pattern carbine. pic.twitter.com/dVJFIWVPR7

— War Noir (@war_noir) February 5, 2025

Responding to the wave of violence sweeping the capital, Mr. Moinil stressed that efforts are being made to track down and arrest all offenders. He added that the clearance rate for homicide cases in Brussels remains exceptionally high. “It must not be thought that justice is not doing its job, but ten or twenty years of laxity cannot be remedied overnight.”