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The Bavarian State Prosecutor's Office has filed an indictment for one of the biggest cocaine litigation in Germany. It is likely to be the biggest cocaine trial in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Landshut Prosecution compiled an indictment against 8 men. The Investigators assume that the defendants are part of a network of smugglers supposedly to have smuggled to Germany about two tonnes of cocaine during the period between September 2017 and April 2018. They are accused of illicit trafficking in narcotics.
They have apparently managed to catch the middle management level of the international narcotics trafficking network. This is evidenced by court documents, which now are owned by journalists of NDR, BR and "Süddeutsche Zeitung".Police discovered this crime by accident in September 2017, when some boxes with bananas have been sent in several supermarkets in Lower Bavaria, and the supermarket workers found cocaine inside these banana boxes. The investigators traced the banana route and found that there were some thefts at the depots where the bananas were stored. In these warehouses are stored bananas and other types of fruit from where then are distributed in Germany and Europe. With the help of a very complicated tapping, the investigators discovered the traffickers. In these investigative and intelligence operations, up to 500 police, customs and investigative officers participated.
Albanian bands were the thieves
The investigations found that the cocaine was put in banana boxes in Ecuador and then was sent to a company based in Germany. The thieves then entered the warehouses where the fruits were stored and stealing the cocaine from there, up to 320 kg for each theft.
The burglars' gangs came deliberately from Albania. During the warehouse survey period, the Bavarian Criminology Bureau recorded a total of eight thefts at a warehouse depot in Bavaria, Hessen, Nordrajn-Westphalia and the Zadar land. The tapping videos indicate that some of the thieves had been armed.
The group was controlled and directed, apparently, from Hamburg, where one of the main accused, Dario L. (21), rented a flat. In this apartment the investigators found later some banana consignment notes. Is assumed for Dario to be involved with gang logistics, while Klajdi D. (25) was involved in theft organising. The group leader is thought to be the 40-year-old Albanian, Alberto K. The investigation had surveyed some members of the gang as they were studied the depots where then they would hit. In addition, some conversations from gang members' meetings at a cafe in Hamburg were also intercepted.
In April 2018 German police decided to carry out the first strike across Germany. Housing apartments were raided in Ahrensburg, Hamburg and Hanover, where two guns were found and over € 30,000 in cash. Four gang members were sentenced in December last year to Hamburg in a separate Court after being caught as drug couriers as they transported 180kg of cocaine from Hamburg to the Netherlands. They have been sentenced to several years in prison, but the Hamburg prosecution warned that will send the decision to the Appeal Court, because the sentence has been to low.
Significant success for German police
The eight defendants in Landshut are currently in detention. The judicial process is also considered special in the fact that among the accused there are also people who have had a leading role. Peter Keller from the Customs Crime Office speaks of a "success that has impressed also the circles of the traffickers". It was "a vital network, which is now concerned about the investigative successes". Keller, however, expects the gang to replace the arrested members.
Other people involved in this group, who are in Albania, the Netherlands and South America, have not been captured yet. Even in other countries, there have been cocaine finds in banana boxes coming from Ecuador, one of which, in March last year at the port of Durres, Albania. The head of the Bavarian Criminology Investigative Group, Joerg Beyeser, told to NDR that the investigations continue. "We are now trying to find people behind the gang and are working intensively internationally," he said. The Court will now decide when the main litigation will begin.
Advocate Hubertus Werner took over the defense of the defendants. He said the process will show how durable the evidence is and that he expects the process to be long and complicated. "I think that, given the large number of defendants and lawyers, will be difficult to clarify the whole issue."