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Seized marijuana
Photo: Essen customs investigation office
In a joint attack by customs and police against drug dealers, eight suspects were arrested in North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to a statement from the customs investigation office in Essen, the accesses and searches took place on June 22, but have only now been made public by the investigators.
The main suspect is therefore a 43-year-old from Oelde, on whose trail the investigators came by evaluating so-called crypto chats.
Because there was a suspicion that the man had firearms, a special unit arrested the man and another 31-year-old suspect.
According to the investigators, more than three kilos of marijuana, 750 grams of cocaine, 95,000 euros in cash, two firearms, two luxury watches and “two high-quality vehicles” were secured from the main suspect and his alleged accomplice alone, it said.
The chats gave rise to the suspicion that the 43-year-old had traded drugs worth at least 260,000 euros.
The man is said to have sold at least four kilograms of cocaine and 38 kilograms of marijuana in the Warendorf and East Westphalia area in the past.
The other arrested persons were drug dealers.
Smaller amounts of drugs, cash, encrypted mobile phones and other weapons such as crossbows were also seized from them.
fek/AFP