A candidate on the Antwerp CD&V list was arrested for drug trafficking, after 3 kg of heroin had been found in a car he was driving, Het Nieuwsblad, De Standaard, the Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Belang van Limburg report Monday.

The news comes at a worse time for Kris Peeters, who leads the Christian Democratic list in the heart of Bart De Wever’s N-VA stronghold, as he was launching on that very day an international anti-drug action plan.

The suspect is Rediart Cankia (41), 46th on the CD&V Antwerp list, and 10th on the same party’s list for the Ekeren district. Mr. Cankia and Ms. Shpresa S., a woman from Kosovo, were intercepted by French police in Vitry, a border town between France and Switzerland, early last week.

Three kilos of heroin were found, hidden in a car which was registered in the name of Shpresa S., police sources confirmed. According to the investigators, the heroin was intendee for the Swiss market.

Investigators are not so surprised that the CD&V candidate be involved in drug trafficking. They know of several people around him who are immersed in narcotics cases.

But how Mr. Cankia was embarked in such a thing has not yet been elucidated, according to the newspapers. “If all is true, it is obvious that this man will not appear on the list,” Kris Peeters reacted.

The Brussels Times