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Seized cocaine (symbol image)
Photo: Marcus Brandt / picture alliance / dpa
The authorities have been investigating the case for almost 20 years, and now they have been able to report success: Target investigators have caught a suspected drug dealer in Sardinia.
The 53-year-old is said to have been involved in a trade in around 20 kilograms of cocaine in 2003, as the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office announced in Munich on Tuesday.
Now emergency forces arrested him in a small community in the Sardinian province of Nuoro.
At the end of 2004, two men had already been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for the offense in Traunstein.
According to the investigators, fingerprints were found on the packaging material of the cocaine that could not be assigned to anyone in 2003.
However, since the research options have improved over the years, old cases are also regularly examined, the investigators said.
It was possible to assign the traces to a person at the end of 2021 using the fingerprint collection of the Netherlands.
An arrest warrant was then issued.
It quickly became apparent that the Italian moved back and forth between Europe and South America.
He was finally located and arrested in mid-July.
This was preceded by a close exchange of information between the emergency services via the network of European target search offices and the Colombian authorities.
wit/AFP
