A Belgian police station apparently was so cluttered that investigators didn’t realize a missing phone that belonged to one of the Paris suicide bombers was hiding under a giant pile of paperwork, local media reported Tuesday.
(FOX)- The phone belonged to 31-year-old Brahim Abdeslam, who killed himself in the massacre in November 2015, the BBC reported. His younger brother, Salah Abdeslam, was the only surviving attack suspect, and was sent to a French jail.
Belgian police were supposed to hand off the recovered phone to anti-terror investigators — but mistakenly kept it at the station in Molenbeek, according to local media. Police reportedly intended to use the phone to investigate possible drug links.
“The phone’s contents had been backed up before it was lost. All the information was in our system so the loss had no impact on the investigation,” Brussels West police spokesman Johan Berckmans told the BBC.
The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the attacks, citing France’s military operation against extremists in Iraq and Syria alongside U.S. and other forces.