Airbnb-type short-term rentals are being used as stash houses by criminal gangs for money, drugs, weapons and people, Belgium’s lead official in charge of countering drugs has said. The booming e-commerce sector is helping “enormously” to facilitate organised crime, Belgium’s national drug commissioner, Ine Van Wymersch, said. Van Wymersch cited the ease of setting up anonymous email accounts, encrypted communications, cryptocurrency and the ubiquity of parcel delivery. Antwerp endured a spate of grenade attacks and the fatal shooting of an 11-year old girl, the victim of a conflict between rival drug gangs. “It is naive to believe that a purely repressive approach will reduce the number of shootings,” Van Wymersch said.