Drugs hidden under bananas or charcoal: From Tuesday on, eleven defendants will have to answer to the Hamburg district court for smuggling cocaine through the port as a gang.
They are accused of smuggling cocaine hidden in sea freight containers from Colombia for resale in Europe, the court said on Friday.
Hamburg - According to the prosecution, the defendants between the ages of 32 and 55 are part of an internationally operating gang (624 KLs 10/21).
According to the information, it is a total of around eight tons of cocaine, which was brought to the Hanseatic city in nine deliveries from South America between the beginning and mid-2020.
Most of the drugs should be forwarded to the Netherlands.
Of this, a total of around 1.7 tons of cocaine were seized in three of the deliveries either in South America or shortly after arrival in Germany, it said.
According to the prosecution, a 38-year-old was involved in all nine cocaine deliveries in a managerial capacity.
In several cases, three of the defendants are said to have used their professional positions in port logistics companies to bring the containers arriving in Hamburg with their cargo out of the port.
According to the public prosecutor, two other defendants who worked as self-employed hauliers in the port took over the transport of the containers.
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dpa