Enlarge image
Police icon image
Photo: Deutzmann / imago/Deutzmann
The police in North Rhine-Westphalia launched a comprehensive attack on drug-related crime.
In the early hours of the morning, the police and public prosecutor's office began a large-scale operation against a suspected dealer ring.
A 27-year-old and two 29-year-old suspects were arrested in the raids in several cities.
As the police in Düsseldorf announced, special forces searched a total of 16 residential and commercial buildings.
The investigations are directed against six men and two women who are said to have sold more than two tons of drugs within a year.
The police took action against the suspects in Düsseldorf, Cologne, Leverkusen, Hilden, Leichlingen, Langenfeld, Erkrath, Winterburg, Hillesheim and Jünkerath.
The investigators stated that they wanted to confiscate assets worth more than nine million euros and to secure further evidence.
Tons of marijuana - and dozens of pounds of hash and cocaine
According to their own statements, the investigators had collected information about the activities of the alleged gang from data from the Encrochat software used by criminals.
The group is accused of trading tons of marijuana, around 50 kilograms of hashish and 30 kilograms of cocaine between March 2020 and June 2021.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) decided at the end of March that messages transmitted via Encrochat are admissible as evidence in court.
Suspected criminals from the field of organized crime had communicated across Europe via the Encrochat network, planning the most serious crimes.
French and Dutch investigators, in cooperation with the EU authorities Europol and Eurojust, succeeded in hacking the program in 2020.
This enabled the cell phones of tens of thousands of suspected criminals to be monitored.
As a result of the decryption, thousands of criminal proceedings were initiated in Germany.
The public prosecutor's office and the police want to take stock of the drug raids in North Rhine-Westphalia in the course of the day.
Apr/AFP
