Brussels Peterbos drug gang trial opens, leader denies ordering six shootings

Opening session in Brussels

The trial of about 45 alleged members of a drug network based in the Peterbos estate in Anderlecht opened on Monday, 9 November 2026 at the Brussels Justice Palace. Twelve of the defendants were absent when proceedings began. Prosecutors say the group imported, sold and exported cocaine and cannabis in Brussels, with sales organised between February 2020 and March 2025. The import activity, which ran to and from the Netherlands and France, is placed between 1 January 2023 and 26 June 2024. Defendants face charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons possession and sale, alongside the six attempted murders.

Who sits at the top

Prosecutors place two men at the top of the pyramid: Imad B., known as 'Mara', and a second man identified as M.K. The second man is on the run, and an international arrest warrant was issued against him on 21 November 2025. According to the prosecution, the organisation had about ten decision-makers and roughly thirty members. Its ramifications reached Marseille in southern France and Panama in Central America. Police sources put the turnover generated by Imad B.'s cocaine operation in Anderlecht at more than 11 million euros over two years from mid-2020.

Background and the 2022 conviction

Imad B. grew up in the Peterbos towers and left for France in his twenties. In Marseille he met Mohamed Djeha, the leader of the La Castellane drug network in the north of the city. He returned to Anderlecht in mid-2020 and set up a cocaine trade there. In a first trial in 2022 he was sentenced to eight years in prison for leading a criminal organisation, a verdict dated 1 December 2022, and 29 other gang members were convicted in the same case. He was then held at Ittre prison, where prosecutors say he kept directing the gang. The network's rise was preceded by a turf war in the second half of 2023, with gunfire involving heavy-calibre weapons in Anderlecht.

Six attempted murders from a prison cell

The charges cover six attempted murders committed between July and December 2023 with firearms and, in most cases, stolen cars that were set alight afterwards. Prosecutors say Imad B. ordered them from his cell at Ittre prison. Reports say the Peterbos dealers wanted control of drug sales in the neighbouring Aumale district and used violence to get it. The first attempt took place on the night of 25-26 July 2023 against a 28-year-old, and the car used was burned the following night. The second, on the night of 29-30 August 2023, used four stolen cars that were burned afterwards, with no known victim. The third, on 11 September 2023, targeted two men: eight shots were fired around 04:30 without injuries, and a man who fled a police patrol was stopped. The fourth and fifth were carried out on the night of 3-4 November and the following night near the Le Blu nightclub on boulevard International in Anderlecht.

Denials and the evidence

Imad B. denied the charges when questioned by the judge at the hearing on 9 November 2026. He told the court:

“I have nothing to do with these acts, I never gave orders for reprisals or anything else.”

He said he had never used Signal and that police attribute pseudonyms to him that are not his. Prosecutors rely on phone taps, Signal messages and microphones placed in his cell that recorded conversations with a cellmate, which investigators link to his involvement in the shootings. He dismissed those recordings as idle talk and prison gossip. His lawyer, Quentin Mayence, said his client has been held in an isolated regime for almost two years and that for a period he was the only person allowed contact with him.

Co-defendants and the first day

Most co-defendants gave their accounts one by one and denied involvement. One described a money transfer to Panama as a favour between friends, and another described an attempted murder as an ordinary fight. His partner, a woman, also sat in the dock and is accused of passing on information while he was in prison. The two have had no contact for two years because of conditions imposed on them. The reports give no date for a verdict, so the trial continues with the hearing of the remaining defendants.