This work examines organised crime groups in Belgium involved in synthetic drug production and trafficking, ie. XTC and (meth)amphetamine. Belgium is a key European hub for large-scale production, with drugs trafficked globally. Organised crime groups largely control this market; however, limited knowledge exists about their structure and actors. Adopting a network perspective, this study uses Social Network Analysis (SNA) to identify key actors, or hubs and brokers, based on high centrality scores or social capital. Through a case file study in Flanders, the research reveals that high-social-capital actors were predominantly Belgian and Dutch males, many holding managerial roles in legal companies to launder profits. Hubs and brokers were closely connected, with brokers strategically positioned to link them. Disruption strategies targeting hubs and brokers yielded limited effects on this robust, scale-free network with small-world properties.

The purpose of the presented research is, through a case study of Operation Ethos, which directly impacted the First Command of the Capital - PCC, to demonstrate the need for a new look at criminal investigation, directing efforts to achieve with greater power and severity criminal agents that are defined as Topological High Return Targets. With the application of the Social Network Analysis, certain targets of greater influence and level of specialization within the criminal group would be subjected to more onerous sanctions – in particular with regard to the regime of serving sentences – as a means of discouraging (general and individual) and retribution for the gravity of its social impact. In the analysis presented, it was found that of the 54 (fifty-four) targets of Operation Ethos, three of them had a greater impact when removed from the structure of the criminal network, and, therefore, were the Targets of High Topological Return of that criminal cell. In this way, as they are the targets of greatest interest, they could also have been subjected to a differentiated sentence regime – a measure that is necessary in order to effectively impact organized crime.