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01:28Właściwie to jest jedna rzecz, among wielu innych rzeczach, które zostały wstąpione.
01:34To ważne jest to, żeby nie tylko rozwijać, ale również rozwijać i rozwijać.
01:41Właściwie z UK to rozwijać tę metodologię.
01:44Myślę, że to ważne jest, że w pierwszej szkole szkole,
01:48to, że w pierwszej szkole szkole,
01:50i to, że możemy pokazać, że jest to, że jest to,
01:54że jesteśmy ready, tak jesteśmy zgodnią i nie zmienimy kontrolę.
01:58Oczywiście, nie można expectować z milionów, że wystarczy z ruchu z tego problemu.
02:04Musimy, że musimy otworzyć educacyjną polityczną i polityczną polityczną.
02:11Musimy otrzymać ludzi do pracy.
02:13Do to zauważymy, to znaczy, że w tym sposób z nieniem, że wśród kontrolę w pewnym miejscu?
02:17Wśród osób ma zauważył się, że nie ma problemu.
02:23Policze są working on that, magistrates are working on that,
02:26but we cannot deny that there is an impact on the security and safety feelings
02:30of people living in those areas.
02:32Now, an investigating judge in the city of Antwerp
02:35said very recently in October that Belgium is a narco state.
02:40Do you agree?
02:40What she said, actually, was that Belgium should not become a narco state,
02:45and I think that's a very important difference.
02:47We are not a narco state,
02:49but we really have to undertake action to prevent that we become a narco state,
02:54because Europol pointed out also recently that corruption is a main concern.
03:01There is a lot of money going on in this criminal world,
03:06and it's with this money that people are convinced to work with criminals.
03:12And that is when we don't tackle the business model,
03:16then we are having a serious risk to develop towards a narco state.
03:21The investigating judge in question who put out this warning had to go into hiding.
03:27There have been former justice minister as well,
03:29who has been at risk tackling these gangs and these structures.
03:35Do you feel safe doing this job?
03:38Well, we cannot be naive.
03:40The enemy we're facing doesn't have any kind of values or ethical standards,
03:46so we have to be aware of a security and a safety risk, of course.
03:51But this cannot make us not handle and not implement a policy that we should implement.
03:57And I think this organized crime has a lot of faces and aspects,
04:01but only has one heart, I would say.
04:04And the center of gravity really is the money.
04:07These are the criminal assets.
04:08So I think the fact that they are getting nervous is because we are just focusing on their criminal assets,
04:15because that's really their reason of existing.
04:17I'm wondering, you know, we have some very radical proposals coming on the table
04:22from the US president, for example, Donald Trump, targeting boats in the Caribbean Sea.
04:29Is that something that authorities here in Europe need to contemplate?
04:32Well, the criminal organizations, cocaine traffic is a very complex problem,
04:38so it only deserves and demands complexity in our answers.
04:42We have to know where the new routes are going to, to be able to put barriers in all logistic chains.
04:49Because if we tackle the logistic chains, the logistics that they are abusing to put up their business,
04:55we are really causing these criminal organizations serious difficulties,
05:00because even if they change products, whether they are importing cocaine or precursors to fabric synthetical drugs,
05:08they are all coming through the same logistic chains.
05:12And to do that, I'm assuming that international work is very important and working with European partners.
05:18Do we need more cooperation at the European level?
05:22Is Brussels, in the sense of the EU institutions, doing enough to support?
05:27Well, we are in close contact with the EU Commission, of course, and we collaborate also to the EU strategy.
05:34We consider it as a global problem.
05:36We need to tackle it on a global level and on a local level on the same time.
05:41Where we need more pressure, I think, from the European institutions,
05:46it's really to put these big companies under pressure that are bringing their encrypted communication tools,
05:53for example, to our market, to force them to collaborate with law enforcement.
05:59These are things that we can do on a European level.
06:02Same thing is to implement the ISPS codes.
06:05These are the security measures that are taken in the ports to avoid terrorist attacks,
06:11but we have to enlarge them towards organized crime.
06:15And these are all steps that need to be taken on a European level,
06:18and I know that people are really working on that.
06:21So when you say encrypted communication services, we're talking about things like Telegram.
06:25Telegram, Signal, and all these kind of tools,
06:29because they are really facilitating not only legal communication, but also illegal communication.
06:36We see that criminal organizations are really taking advantage of the fact
06:41that these companies are not very keen on collaborating with law enforcement.
06:47And if we accept that there is like a digital space where these criminals can talk freely,
06:54we are really losing our freedom at the end.
06:57I know that you are a mom yourself.
06:59And that you also worked as a juvenile prosecutor.
07:02Children are also at risk in all of this.
07:05When it comes to the situation in Belgium, what do you see as the biggest risks when it comes to children,
07:10both in terms of consumption, but also when it comes to them being recruited into criminal gangs and so on?
07:18Children are at risk because we see that mental health is really an issue.
07:25So I think we have to invest in mental health and in resilience.
07:28If we are managing towards schools, sports with the parents to create a resilient generation,
07:37then they are resilient for all kinds of problems and also recruitment by criminal organizations.
07:43On the other hand, we cannot be naïve.
07:45I am very concerned, for example, about illegal vapes.
07:49We see that the seizures that we've done of illegal refill capsules for vapes that they are more than 80% is containing synthetical opioids.
08:02And they don't have a specific smell or color.
08:05And criminal organizations are abusing this whole logistic network of selling points of these vapes.
08:13So I'm very happy that our Minister of Public Health took the decisions that the tastes, these cherry tastes and everything of vapes,
08:23will be forbidden soonly because criminal organizations are taking advantage of that
08:28to introduce synthetical opioids to very young children.
08:33So we really have to be aware that everything can be abused by criminal organizations.
08:41Same thing, it's about social media.
08:43We really have to be present on these social media platforms to bring a counter-narrative.
08:50In Brussels, a lot of children, youngsters complain that they don't find a student job,
08:55that they don't find a place for a traineeship.
08:59I really think we have to offer them these chances to get a degree in school.
09:06Because if we don't do this as private and public partners in a big city as Brussels,
09:12criminal organizations will offer them a criminal career.
09:15This issue of the synthetic drugs being introduced in vapes, this is very serious.
09:20What are the risks to our children?
09:23Well, the risk is that they will be addicted on a very young age,
09:27that their brain will not develop the way it should be.
09:30These are serious health risks and we need to protect them from that
09:35by taking measures against all these logistic chain issues that are abused for synthetical drugs.
09:43And we see that Belgium together with the Netherlands is an important production country of synthetical drugs
09:50and they are fabriqued based on products, precursors, chemicals that are coming from China and India mainly.
09:59They have a legal purpose.
10:00We have a strong petrochemical industry, we have a strong pharmaceutical industry,
10:05but they are misused and they are used for the fabrics of syntheticals.
10:13And also Europe needs to think about a way to avoid that these chemicals are entering our territory.
10:22Finally, Commissioner, what we're referencing here, synthetic drugs,
10:26things like fentanyl, which we've seen really skyrockets in the US, in Canada, North America.
10:33Are we immune to this problem in Belgium, in Europe,
10:37or could we also face the same kind of situation as they're facing over the Atlantic?
10:41Well, we have very close contacts with DEA, for example,
10:45and the question is not if we will have fentanyl, but the question is when will we see fentanyl.
10:50And I'm convinced that we will see fentanyl in a different way than in the US
10:54because our healthcare system, etc., is different.
10:57But we see that criminal organizations might use fentanyl to mix it with cocaine, for example,
11:04and then fentanyl is becoming an addiction accelerator, for example.
11:09The craving period is shorter, so people will be demanding for more cocaine in a shorter time.
11:17It's a bit like sweets in nutrition.
11:19They will use fentanyl in drugs that are already used on the European territory.
11:24So that is why we are very aware and supporting the European awareness system, for example.
11:30And finally, to close off, is this with fentanyl happening currently in Belgium?
11:36In Belgium, not yet.
11:37But, of course, I can base myself only on what we see.
11:41And we don't see everything, for sure.
11:43But we don't have a fentanyl issue as we have it in the US.
11:49But it is entering Europe, for sure.
11:52Commissioner, thank you so much for your time today.
11:54Thank you.
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