The backers are probably far away abroad, now their alleged henchmen have to answer to a court in Bavaria.
Aschaffenburg - Two men from the Netherlands - 23 and 26 years old - wanted to get around a ton of cocaine with accomplices from a container in which medical products from the Caribbean were transported via Hamburg and Aschaffenburg to Friedberg in Hesse.
But the customs investigation office got a tip, secured the dangerous substance in the port of Aschaffenburg, sent the container on to Hesse and then lay in wait for days.
A story that could also come from a crime thriller.
The case has been before the Aschaffenburg district court since Monday.
Cocaine for 109 million euros: police confiscate goods from freight containers
In Friedberg, the accused fell into the trap in the middle of the night.
"Police, let's get out!" one of the perpetrators is said to have shouted when he noticed that the smuggled goods with an estimated street value of almost 109 million euros had disappeared from the container.
"As he recalls, shots were fired, a helicopter could be heard," said defense attorney Ralf Peisl on Monday on behalf of his 23-year-old client about the police access on June 21, 2022.
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Historic cocaine find: two customs officers with some of the drugs seized after a tip
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
Six days earlier, foreign authorities had given their Bavarian colleagues a tip: hot goods could be stored at the container terminal in Aschaffenburg.
An on-call team went out and found what they were looking for: 43 packages of cocaine were stored in a freight container between boxes full of transfusion bags.
Prosecutor Sebastian Brunner says: "However, when the accused and the other previously unknown perpetrators found that the cocaine was no longer in the container, they fled."
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Organized crime: process could bring clues to backers
More than half a year after the success of customs and police, only two men in Aschaffenburg are on Monday in front of the Great Criminal Court.
The case against a 45-year-old defendant, who has Dutch and Moroccan nationality, has been suspended because of his illness.
Only the 23-year-old and the 26-year-old could contribute to the investigation at the beginning of the process and provide information about the people behind it - presumably organized crime.
While the 26-year-old remains silent, the younger defendant lets his defense attorney speak: Peisl says his client claims he knew nothing about drug smuggling.
“He only found out about this later from the police.
He also never wanted to be involved in a narcotics business.” Rather, the trained tiler assumed that it could be a business for possibly untaxed electronic devices.
Promised reward for the longtime drug user: 100 grams of marijuana.
For this, the 23-year-old drove a drug dealer from the Netherlands to Friedberg in Hesse last June.
"The financial offer attracted him to participate"
When he was suddenly offered 20,000 euros for his help there, he became unsure, but did not dare to refuse his support.
With people unknown to him, they finally drove to the container.
"The financial offer tempted him to take part," explains Peisl.
When the police suddenly appeared, the 23-year-old ran away aimlessly, but was eventually arrested.
Three days of negotiations are scheduled for the process.
The accused have been in custody since the attack in June, and the search for accomplices continues.
According to the State Criminal Police Office, the Hessian company is not involved in drug smuggling from the Dominican Republic to Friedberg.
It is unclear who should ultimately receive the explosive goods.
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List of rubrics: © Peter Kneffel/dpa