The killing of Karel Van Noppen was a high-profile political scandal in Belgium. Van Noppen, a 43-year-old government livestock inspector, was shot and killed outside the front door of his home in the village of Wechelderzande, Antwerp Province, Belgium, in February 1995. A number of people connected with the illegal supply of growth hormones to livestock farmers were later sentenced in connection with his murder.
At the time of his death, Van Noppen had been investigating the illegal use of growth hormones on livestock. The use of such hormones had been banned across the European Union, and therefore in Belgium, since 1989, but the practice remained attractive to some farmers and businessmen because it had the potential to increase the profit per animal by between 10 and 100 percent. Organised crime networks known as the "Hormone Mafia" moved into the business of supplying the illegal hormones to farmers, motivated by the immense profits involved. This was a particular concern in Belgium, where several government inspectors enforcing the hormone ban had already been threatened, or had attempts made on their lives, before Van Noppen was killed.
Van Noppen's killing provoked outrage throughout Belgium. His widow led a torchlight procession in the Flanders region, and the case prompted public calls to investigate the illegal hormone trade and better regulate the cattle industry. It was one of a series of highly publicized scandals in Belgium during the 1990s, alongside the Agusta scandal, the Dioxin affair, and the Dutroux affair.
In 2002, a Belgian court sentenced Albert Barrez, Carl de Schutter, and Germain Daenen to 25 years' imprisonment each for their roles in the murder. A fourth man, Alex Vercauteren, received a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
The case later inspired the 2011 Belgian crime drama Bullhead, directed by Michaël R. Roskam and starring Matthias Schoenaerts in a leading role, which is loosely based on the killing and the hormone-mafia trade it exposed.
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