In the trial of drug trafficking on a large scale before the district court in Hanau, the two main defendants confessed and admitted to having acquired more than 100 kilograms of cocaine within six months and to having resold it in the Rhine-Main area and beyond.

A courier driver also admitted on Wednesday that he had picked up and delivered drugs.

In addition, these three defendants gave up their opposition to the use of intercepted data, as they or their defense attorneys said.

This data is the main evidence of drug trafficking over the past year.

The American Federal Police FBI had intercepted the information in an encrypted message system, the "Anom-Chat", and passed it on to authorities in Germany, among other places.

Jan Schiefenhoevel

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

The American police had set a trap for criminals all over the world.

She had set up the "Anom" messaging system and circulated cell phones for its use.

It is disputed whether data obtained by the authorities under these circumstances can be used as evidence in court.

A final decision by the Federal Court of Justice is still pending.

The district court of Hanau had already decided on an earlier day of the hearing to temporarily admit the information.

Agreement ends dispute over the use of evidence

With the three defendants' recent declaration that they no longer object to the use of the data and the confessions, the verdict on the trio no longer depends significantly on the admissibility of the intercepted information.

The other two defendants have also announced statements for the next day of the session.

With the confession, the accused fulfill a condition that four of them agreed upon in an agreement with the judges' chamber and the public prosecutor's office.

Accordingly, prison sentences of nine years to ten years and three months are planned for the two Germans at the head of the group.

Sentences of between six years and seven years and nine months have been negotiated for the other two accused, who are said to have delivered drugs and received money.

The fifth defendant did not enter into an agreement.

He is accused of being a drug mule.

The 38-year-old Alex G. saw in the supposedly protected news system Anom an opportunity to "get big money" with drug trafficking without work, as he said in the confession.

With his tattoo studio, he did not earn enough income to feed the family.

The trade was “exactly what happened” as alleged in the indictment.

The man spoke of five cases in which he had ordered cocaine through Anom in the past year, in amounts of 45, 50, 40, 85 and just under 16 kilograms.

Only in custody since June 2021 did he realize the suffering addiction causes.

Jakob O., 32, also admitted dealing drugs between December 2020 and June 2021.