Belgian customs officers have seized 51 kilograms of cocaine hidden in two suitcases that arrived on a Brussels Airlines flight from Freetown.
The discovery was made on 31 July 2026 at Brussels Airport (Zaventem). According to the Halle-Vilvoorde Public Prosecutor’s Office, the suitcases were among luggage from the flight that left Sierra Leone’s capital.
A 22-year-old woman from Anderlecht in Belgium was arrested while trying to collect the two bags. She was not a passenger on the flight. Investigators say she was sent to the airport specifically to pick up the luggage containing the drugs.
Customs officers were checking passengers and bags from the Freetown flight when they found the cocaine, packed in blocks inside the suitcases.
Authorities are still investigating how the woman was able to enter the baggage reclaim area without travelling on the plane, and who organised the shipment from Sierra Leone.
The woman was first ordered into pre-trial detention by an investigating judge. The Council Chamber later released her under electronic monitoring while the probe continues.
The case has once again drawn attention to attempts by drug networks to move cocaine through West African airports, including Freetown, into Europe.
