Examining magistrates are in some cases finding it too difficult to get information from the tax authorities with regard drug criminals' assets Antwerp prosecutor Franky De Keyzer told VRT. Companies in the port of Antwerp also complain that with regard to efforts to carry out checks on access to the port, they experience difficulties as a result of privacy rules.
Home News
Prosecutors complain of the difficulty tracking drug money: "We’re running into a brick wall"
Colin Clapson
Published:
"Follow the money." That should be the starting point of judicial investigations trying to move higher up the pyramid of drug clans, but according to prosecutor Franky De Keyzer, the tax authorities sometimes have difficulty sharing information with the public prosecutor's office that is then hampered in properly investigating the money flows of drug criminals.
"We as a society rightly attach great importance to privacy," says De Keyzer. "But on the other hand, I am not going to deny that we run into some stone walls in our fight against organised crime. If examining judges cannot have ready access to all the data or have to take all kinds of initiatives to get hold of that information, then it means we are complicating the fight. It’s a political choice," the prosecutor explains.
Sharing information
In particular, De Keyzer questions the strictness of the 1986 "Taxpayer's Charter". Since then, tax officials have not been allowed to simply share information with criminal investigators. In practice, this prevents police from requesting information needed to detect crimes from the tax administration. A prosecutor or an investigating judge has to make the request.
"Privacy is very important and must be well guarded, but there are a number of obstacles that do not make our work easier," says De Keyzer. He advocates a model like in the Netherlands, where the tax department has its own investigation department. It should then be up to the public prosecutor's office to decide afterwards whether to proceed with a prosecution.
Access pass
Privacy rules also complicate checks at the Antwerp port in other areas, says Stephan Van Fraechem, head of an organisation representing port companies. According to Van Fraechem, "time was lost" when there was an effort to introduce a new access pass for the port.
"We wanted to use biometric data, such as an eye scan or a fingerprint," says Van Fraechem, but a negative recommendation from the Data Protection Authority, Belgium's privacy watchdog, meant that this was not possible for a very long time.
"Allow me to say that this is a bit peculiar," he says. "We are not going to publicise this, but we do need that information if we want to improve security at the port."
Fortunately though, recently, the use of this data has been made possible.