Brabant killers

this is 1 i've never heard of. The Brabant killers (also the Nijvel Gang (Dutch: De Bende van Nijvel, French: Les Tueurs fous du Brabant Wallon) are believed responsible for a series of violent attacks that mainly occurred in the Belgian province of Brabant between 1982 and 1985. Twenty-eight people died and 40 were injured. The actions of the gang, believed to consist of several people who assisted a core of three men, made it Belgium's most notorious crime spree. The active participants were known as: The Giant (a tall man who may have been the leader); the Killer (the main shooter) and the Old Man (a middle aged man who drove). The identities and whereabouts of the "Brabant killers" are unknown although one may have been killed after the last known robbery. Failure to catch the gang was a major impetus behind the reform of the Belgian police. There have been many theories of ulterior motives behind the crimes. Method of operation: Some evidence police found indicated the gang were professional criminals involved in drugs and burglaries. On the other hand, odd elements were also evident: -Robbery proceeds were modest relative to the extreme risks; -The killings escalated dramatically in 1985. Bystanders were shot dead in the parking lot before the gang entered the supermarkets; other victims, including children, were shot from as close as a foot away while cowering on floors; -Firearms were a particular interest; the 12-gauge pump shotguns used were loaded with a rare, heavy buckshot; -Cars used, often Volkswagens, were stripped of distinctive trim; vehicle modifications indicated a mechanic's expertise; -The getaway driver was highly skilled; escape routes were fast and non-obvious, often to forested areas where the cars were burned. -The gang is believed to have had at least one outside helper on its last raid. The weapons the gang used were found in 1987 in a channel about 30 km outside Brussels. Ulterior motives- Official complicity: The last gang robbery (despite patrols checking the supermarket every twenty minutes) led to rumors of them having some kind of inside knowledge and possibly complicity by individual gendarmes in the attacks. Nearby Gendarmerie vehicles (which had an Uzi in a compartment) did not engage or pursue the gang. The Belgian "stay-behind" network SDRA8 (Gladio) — operating as a secret branch of the Belgian military service — was suggested by some to have links to the gang. Some units of the stay-behind network were made up of members of the Belgian Gendarmerie. One theory was that the communist threat in Western Europe was taken as justifying Operation Gladio being activated. However, the Belgian parliamentary inquiry into Gladio found no substantive evidence that Gladio was involved in any terrorist acts or that criminal groups had infiltrated the stay-behind network. The Belgian Gendarmerie were abolished in reforms that came as a result of a perceived lack of satisfactory performance in the Brabant killers case, and that of Marc Dutroux. Westland New Post: The NATO 'Stay Behind' explanation for the Brabant incidents was explored in a 1992 BBC Timewatch series named 'Operation Gladio', directed by Allan Francovich. The program centered on a by-then defunct private Belgian far right anti-communist organization named Westland New Post. The leader, Paul Latinus, said he was working with government agencies along the same lines as Gladio. Many people believe Latinus fabricated contacts with secret government agencies to boost his prestige among WNP followers. The main WNP connection to the Brabant killers was that members — including some Gendarmerie — recalled being ordered in the early eighties to covertly surveil and compile a report on security arrangements at various Belgian supermarkets. Some of the markets were in a large chain that was the main target of the later killings. WNP had a genuine intelligence operative advising on covert techniques; NATO behind-the-lines units are known to have used the planning of robberies as a training exercise. Michel Libert, the former second-in-command of Westland New Post, has never denied passing on the covert-supermarket-surveillance orders. He has denied having anything more to do with the matter. He said he was not told by Latinus what the purpose was behind the assignments. In 1983 Libert had been staying with Marcel Barbier, a WNP member, when the latter was arrested for using a weapon in a street fight and became a suspect in a double murder at a synagogue a year earlier. When police then began investigating WNP, Latinus told them that Barbier and another WNP member were behind the synagogue murders, and that Latinus had helped Barbier get rid of the murder weapon as well as other pieces of evidence. Barbier was the only person convicted for these murders; his co-accused, who was acquitted, but later convicted, of a similar double murder of diamond merchants, appeared in a Belgian TV program in 2014, where he alleged WNP was behind the Brabant killings. This claim was based on WNP apparently having compiled information on the premises raided. Libert was arrested as a suspect soon after the program was broadcast, but released without charge after 48 hours. Other speculation: Various conspiracy theories link the killings to political scandals, suggesting they were done to disguise a targeted assassination. In one version, connecting the killings to illegal gun-running mafias and legitimate businesses, a banker by the name of Léon Finné, who was shot by the gang in Overijse, was supposedly targeted deliberately. Possible suspects: Notorious professional criminals, including Patrick Haemers and Madani Bouhouche (both deceased) have been indicated as likely suspects. Haemers's height made him an apparent fit for the Brabant gang's 'Giant'. On the other hand, his known crimes lacked the gratuitous violence and small-time takings that were the Brabant killers' hallmark. Bouhouche was an ex-policeman convicted of two murders and linked to several notorious crimes of the era. Investigation: In 1983, on the basis of a forensic examination of a weapon, authorities charged the gun owner (a former municipal policeman) and several other men with the Brabant killings. Police said they obtained statements from the men under interrogation. However, the Brabant killers' Orhain raid (Oct. 2nd, 1983) occurred while the accused were in detention. It later came out that a German laboratory had concluded that the examined weapon (a pistol) had not been used in the robberies. Charges against the "Borains," as the men were known, were eventually dropped. The law enforcement agencies hunting the killers made many mistakes during the early years of the investigation. Among them were the mishandling of fingerprints believed to have belonged to one of the killers. These fingerprints were either destroyed or simply lost. The investigating magistrate was criticized for lack of professionalism in handling evidence and not considering alternatives to his theories about the case. He was later replaced. Current lines of inquiry: One suspect was C.B., nicknamed "The Giant". He was a police officer and member of the elite group Diane during and after the crimes. He passed away on May 14, 2015, before which he allegedly confessed to having committed the crimes to his brother. His brother only revealed the confession two years after the death, in October 2017. There were also a riot gun, other gun, bullets in a basket labelled "Gendarmerie-Politie", indicating it used to belong to the police, found in a canal, probably linked to the Brabant killers. Barring an extension to the statute of limitations, the gang members would no longer be punished for the crimes. The limit was due to run out November 10, 2015. The period was extended with 10 years in October 2015.