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Process for cocaine smuggling: The men must each be imprisoned for up to twelve years
Photo: Jonas Walzberg / dpa
They betrayed their crypto cell phones: A seven-member drug gang was sentenced to long prison terms before the Hamburg district court.
The trial involved the smuggling of more than three tons of cocaine.
The chamber found the 28 to 60-year-old men guilty of, among other things, aiding and abetting gang trafficking in narcotics.
They received prison sentences of between three years and nine months – and twelve years.
The court was convinced that the accused, in different occupations and in several cases, received drugs shipped from South America in Hamburg and passed them on to unknown third parties.
In return, they are said to have received up to 20 percent of the contraband to sell on their own account.
Container handling manipulated
The street value of the 3.35 tons of cocaine from South America was estimated at around 300 million euros.
At the center of the gang network was a 41-year-old man who, through the unauthorized use of a password he knew, was able to gain access to the logistical transport system in the port of Hamburg and thus manipulate the processes for handling containers.
The trail to the drug gang led to the chat histories of thousands of users of so-called crypto mobile phones from the communications service provider Encrochat, which were decrypted in France in spring 2020.
According to the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, a total of ten men belong to the drug gang, and the three suspects who have not yet been convicted are being dealt with separately.
The amount of cocaine involved in this trial is enormous, at more than three tons.
In February 2021, however, customs investigators in Hamburg discovered a significantly larger amount of 16 tons of cocaine in containers from Paraguay.
It was said to be the largest amount of cocaine ever seized in Europe.
apr/dpa