Belgian customs will begin using military radar systems to monitor civilian aircraft more closely to combat smuggling, officials said.
The move has now come to acknowledge that authorities have acknowledged smugglers using limited surveillance at small airports and helipads across the country.
Civil airplanes are often used to transport illegal goods with little or no scrutiny of drugs, weapons, cash, and illegal goods.
Belgium has around 150 airfields and helipads, many of which allow private aircraft to land and depart without formal customs checks.
Officials say this lack of surveillance has made them a magnet for human trafficking operations.
“There are thousands of flights in Belgium. Customs concentrated all the effort and management on the six most important airports, but the other 150 were really blind spots for us,” said Christian Vanderwellen, general manager of Belgian customs.
Civil aircraft offer even more benefits to criminals, including flexible routes, rapid turnaround times on the ground, and the ability to turn off transponders (device that can track the aircraft), making them invisible to standard surveillance systems.
Customs officials have now become supportive of Belgium’s National Airspace Security Centre to improve surveillance.
From there, they use radar data provided by the Department of Defense to identify and flag suspicious flights.
“This allows us to send the brigade, the brigade, to the airport. This has not been running a check so far,” explained Vanderwaeren.
Authorities recorded only about 30 smuggling-related crimes involving civil aircraft in Belgium last year. However, layered surveillance has led authorities to expect detections to rise.
