Chinese mafia feared to be assassinating Belgian homing pigeons

Last week a passerby spotted two men dumping rubbish bags in a wood in Mol, near the Dutch border.

The two men were driving a car with French licence plates, according to the witness, who took photos at the scene thinking that the strangers were tipping refuse at a natural beauty spot, Belgian media reported.

However the sacks were found to contain the bodies of 14 racing pigeons.

All the birds had one foot cut off and therefore lost their identification tags.

The birds were believed to have gone missing the same day from a well-known local pigeon breeder.

The impressive reputation of competition pigeons raised in Belgium has long spread beyond the country’s borders. The best birds can change hands for hundreds of Euros.

The pigeons have attracted Chinese criminal gangs, according to the Royal Belgian Federation of Pigeon Fanciers, which has already recorded ten robberies this year. Rather than attempting to smuggle their prey abroad, the ‘birdnappers’ merely kill their victims and cut off the identification rings.

"All they have to is fit the stolen identification rings onto a bird in China worth a fraction of the value, which they then pass off as an ace racer," fanciers’ association president Pierre De Rijst told the Het Laatste Nieuws daily.

The two men photographed in Mol, who turned out to be Chinese nationals, presented themselves to Belgian police on Saturday. They explained that they were in Belgium on business "in the world of pigeon fanciers".

According to the prosecutor’s office, they supplied proof of purchase of pigeons in Belgium and were therefore allowed to leave freely.

The Belgian federation now recommends that its 33,000 members take out insurance against theft and place surveillance cameras in their coops.

AFP/Expatica