The Iceberg Strategy: Ine Van Wymersch, Drug Commissioner

A country drifting toward narco-state. The answer isn't a hammer. It's warm water. Belgium is one decision away from becoming a narco-state. Judges in hiding. Prosecutors under armed protection. An 11-year-old girl killed in a drug-related shooting in Antwerp. The country hosting Europe's second-largest port now seizes over 120 tons of cocaine a year. And the Belgian government handed the mission of stopping it to Ine Van Wymersch. Ine Van Wymersch became Belgium's youngest Public Prosecutor at 39, after years as a youth magistrate making the kind of decisions that change a child's life forever. In 2016, she was the calm voice of a traumatized nation following the Brussels attacks. In 2023, she was named Belgium's first ever National Drug Commissioner. She now operates under armed protection. And she refuses the obvious answer. Her view: more police will not save us. Belgium needs a "warm society." Her iceberg metaphor cuts the noise. Above the waterline: shootings, seizures, violence. Below: corruption, money laundering, addicted parents, kids growing up without a chance. Attack the iceberg directly and a new piece grows back overnight. Warm the water around it, with education, jobs, mental health, dignity, and the iceberg starts to melt. Her work sits very close to a question I have lived with for years through Live for Good : how do we stop losing young people before life has really started for them? My years at Microsoft taught me that no organization, however large, beats determined people working from a shared narrative. Ine has built exactly that narrative for Belgium, and it deserves to travel far beyond it. In our conversation, we explore: → Why repression alone cannot beat organized drug crime, and what "warming the water around the iceberg" really means → The three pillars of her strategy: disrupt logistics, follow the money, rebuild society → The story of Elvire, the illiterate woman approved for euthanasia who asked Ine to write her life → How terrorist networks and drug cartels recruit the same vulnerable youth, and why a closed job market is a national security issue → Why "a warm society" of education, mental health, and opportunity is the only sustainable defense against narco-states "If we warm up the water, we are creating an environment where organized crime is not surviving." Ine Van Wymersch, Belgium's National Drug Commissioner 🎧 Related Episodes: Élisabeth Moreno, "Realise the impossible" Muriel Pénicaud, "Lead like an orchestra conductor" (employment and skills as the foundation of a resilient society) Jacqueline Novogratz, "Building a better world together" (empathy, storytelling, and dignity for those society has excluded) 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, jpcourtois.com 📩

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The Iceberg Strategy: Ine Van Wymersch, Drug Commissioner is an episode from The Positive Leadership Podcast by Jean-Philippe Courtois.

This episode is 100:40 long.

This episode was published on Apr 29, 2026.

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