Former Inter & Belgium star arrested in cocaine trafficking bust | OneFootball

Former Inter and Roma midfielder Radja Nainggolan has been arrested as part of an investigation into cocaine trafficking in Belgium.

The 36-year-old is understood to have been detained by Belgian police after they carried out a number of separate raids across the country.

The Associated Press report that 30 searches were carried out on Monday morning, in the province of Antwerp and in and around Brussels, where 2.7 kilograms of cocaine, luxury items worth over €500,000 and over €350,000 cash were found by authorities.

Nainggolan spent four years at Roma between 2014 and 2018 after a similar length stint at Cagliari, and eventually moved onto current Serie A holders Inter. He was one of the country's most prominent midfielders at the time of the move, but failed to establish himself as a regular at San Siro.

The combative star recently ended a lengthy spell out of the game by signing for second-tier Lokeren, who learned of his arrest by reading media reports.

"The club respects the presumption of innocence and therefore cannot comment further," a club statement read. "We can only confirm that the player was absent from training this morning. The club will continue to focus on tomorrow’s crucial league match against KAS Eupen. Radja Nainggolan is not eligible to play in that match anyway."

16 people have been arrested, the Brussels public prosecutor’s office confirmed, with the investigation focused on the alleged importation of cocaine into the country from South America to shipping ports in Antwerp.

Nainggolan has been capped 30 times by Belgium but he has not appeared for the national team in six years. He has two major honours to his name - the 2020/21 Serie A title and 2022/23 Belgian Pro League title - and was named in the Serie A team of the year in all four of his full seasons at Roma.