A former top international official fears a gang of traffickers could be connected to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
The former top Belgian official, who led the inquiry into the murderer and child-molester Marc Dutrous, said a notorious network of paedophiles could have ordered the kidnapping of the then-three-year-old girl.
Police investigating primary suspect and paedophile, Christian Brueckner, who is set to be released from jail on Tuesday - are taking the allegations seriously.
Madeleine went missing while on holiday in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007.
Three days earlier, Belgian police had issued an alert to police forces in Europe that a paedophile gang had ordered a small child to be taken.
Former Belgian Justice Minister Marc Verwilghen told The Sun: “I have never had access to the Madeleine McCann files".
“All I can say is as soon as I heard about the case I had deja vu — because it reminded me straight away of Dutroux.
“When you look at the case it is of course possible Madeleine was stolen to order.
The primary suspect in Madeleine McCann's investigation has rejected an interview with the Metropolitan Police | PA"The alert that was sent looks like it must have come from Belgium police and it should have been taken seriously."
Mr Verwilghen added that the Dutroux investigators had "uncovered reports of possible paedophile rings operating in Belgium at that time but couldn't finish their enquiry as this was focused on Dutroux, handling him as a long actor".
Dutroux abducted, raped and murder girls in Belgium in the 1990s.
The man was arrested in 1996 and jailed for life eight years alter in 2004.
Christian Brueckner is the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case | GETTYHe is thought to have links to European networks of child-sex traffickers.
Mr Verwilghen said there were many "similarities" between the cases, saying: "It was clear paedophile networks and child-trafficking really did exist in Europe".
"We know this since Dutroux but the enquiry committee was never allowed to look into them properly," he said.
"It was clear that these existed to make money."
Mr Verwilghen said he networks "could be informal" with one person dealing with another.
However, he said "they existed".
"The Dutroux case showed us that abduction of children took organisation and planning and more than one person to make this work," Mr Verwilghen said.
"Intelligence suggests a paedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken.
"Somebody connected to this group saw Maddie, took a photograph of her and sent it to Belgium. The purchaser agreed that the girl was suitable and Maddie was taken.”
The police warning from Belgium first emerged in 2008 after a fax was released as part of a bundle of files surrounding the case.
British cops investigating Madeleine's disappearance in 2016 began looking into a European gang of traffickers, however, the theory had never been publicly linked to Brueckner - who was living in the Algarve at the time of her disappearance.
Officials investigating the rapist believe Madeleine was likely stolen to order - instead of being taken by a "lone wolf".
However, the investigation has been on his alleged role and not a wider paedophile network.
He is due to be freed from jail today after serving a sentence for raping a woman aged 72 and the German has refused a request by the Metropolitan Police to ask him questions.