Breakthrough for the Brabant Killers found in Northern France?

The court of appeal in Bergen (Belgium) has just ordered an investigation into the French connection in the case of the Brabant Killers.

In total, the Brabant Killers made 28 deadly victims during robberies, mainly on supermarkets, in Belgium in the 1980s, in a particularly violent manner. The hope of ever finding out who the members of the Brabant Killers were has now almost completely faded. The omertà in Belgium proved unbreakable, even after all these years. However, an old notebook in which two brothers from Opwijk noted all the number plates of passing cars at that time, combined with a clue leading to two northern French gangsters, may after all these years lead to a breakthrough in the biggest cover-up operation in the history of Belgian crime.

In June 2024, the federal prosecution office announced that the investigation into the Brabant Killers was closed. But the many relatives of the victims, investigators, and lawyers who want to go to the extreme did not give up. Consequently, a new investigation into the notebook in which the two brothers from Opwijk, Flemish Brabant, noted the number plates of passing cars forty years ago was ordered by the court of Bergen in January. That notebook may possibly contain information about November 9, 1985, the day of the bloodiest and last robbery of the Gang. Moreover, the court of appeal in Bergen has now also ordered a new investigation into a clue that was never really investigated intensively and leads to northern France.

This concerns a lead from Jean-Pierre Adam, a retired gendarme who has been conducting his own investigation for years. According to Adam, it was indeed two northern French brothers who orchestrated the attacks of the Gang.

The civil parties are relieved. "I have always believed in it", declares Patrick Ramaël, the French lawyer representing the civil parties to RTBF. "An investigating judge who systematically refused my investigations requests is now forced to investigate the French track. This is a victory for the civil parties and a victory for the Belgian justice. And there will be more victories to follow, in the interest of the civil parties, of truth, of justice, and even of the country."

(SR - Source: RTBF/Nieuwsblad - Illustration: ©Jari Asselman via Wikimedia Commons with license CC BY-SA 4.0)