They supposedly are combating "money laundering," which to them means anyone with money is laundering it. So, they systematically go around to dealers of diamonds and gold (common in Belgium), seize everything they have, claim evidence of "money laundering," wait five or ten years, and of the owner hasn't died or emigrated in disgust, return what they feel like returning.
In one famous case, they seized the stock of a dealer in gem quality diamonds, gave him a receipt for the correct amount of carats, waited years, said, "oh, OK, you're innocent, after all," and returned the same amount of carats in industrial grade diamonds, worth about 5% of the value of what they had seized. I had lunch with the majority leader of the Belgian Senate a few years after that happened, and even she knew all about it, but said the central government was so weak, they had no power to act against the corrupt cops.
Another case that came to light was when a small dealer in gold got raided, accused (as always) of money laundering, and had his whole stock of 15 Kilo bars of gold confiscated. After five years or so,, the usual story: oh, OK, you're innocent after all. Here are your 12 Kilos back. When he protested that he had had 15 kilos, he was told to shut up if he didn't want another raid due to "new" evidence, or whatever their term was. This one came to light because the girlfriend of one of the dirty cops broke up with him in a less-than-amicable manner, and informed another brigade of cops, and told them where in her ex-boyfriend's apartment the stolen 3 kilos of gold were to found. That, obviously, was when that story busted open.
Even if you are not money laundering, but have untaxed income you want to hide, if you have friends on the inside, you get a pass. I personally know one guy (and he really is a nasty piece of work) who was/is part of a legit outfit, but was doing stuff for himself on the side for decades. He had (still has?) a good friend who was a cop, with whom he went hunting on weekends. He had hundreds of thousands of euros in cash stashed in his house when a raid came down on all the principles in his outfit. His cop friend arranged for the dogs that were sent to his house to be drug sniffers (the guy did no dope). There ARE dogs trained to sniff out the ink that is used to print currency, and can detect it if there are bundles of cash in one place. But those dogs were NOT sent to the guy's house, and so they never found his stash. It would stand to reason that he has moved his cash in the meantime (I haven't seen him in many years).
So, don't think that professional thieves in uniform are an American invention.
It came as no big surprise to Europe that it was in Belgium where child molester/murderer Marc Dutroux was left untouched for ten years because he "had friends in government." Indeed he did. The children that suffered at his hands between the time he was identified for what he was, and the time he was finally arrested and put away, are people that can never be compensated for what happened to them for no other reason than Belgian government corruption.
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