In the 1990s in Belgium, there was an enormous scandal over a serial murder and child molester who was being protected by the Belgian police, and had ties to international human smuggling routes and the Belgian establishment via an equally suspicious businessman. After he was arrested, multiple women came to the Belgian police claiming they had been abused as children in a national child sex ring during the 1970s and 1980s, for which the protected pedophile had been an agent. They also claimed this ring was invested in Satanic rituals, animal pornography, child pornography, snuff films, and murder. These allegations were proven to be true. One girl named her pimp as Anthony van den Bogaert, who also came under police protection, before fleeing to Eastern Europe.