In the trial of the largest cocaine find in Bavaria to date, the two accused were sentenced to several years in prison. The 23 and 26-year-old men were found guilty on Thursday by the Aschaffenburg district court of aiding and abetting trafficking in narcotics, a court spokeswoman said. The sentence provides for eight and a half years in prison for the 26-year-old accused and five years and two months for his accomplice. In addition, both should be housed in a rehabilitation center. The verdicts are largely based on the demands of the public prosecutor’s office. The verdict against the 26-year-old is already final.
According to the indictment, the two men tried last June to get more than a ton of cocaine out of a container that had been transported from the Dominican Republic to Lower Franconia via the port of Hamburg. The drugs were hidden between medical devices intended for a Hessian company. Investigators estimate the street sales value at almost 109 million euros. The Munich customs investigation office spoke of the largest single amount of cocaine that had been seized in Bavaria to date.
Foreign authorities had given a tip for the find. Customs investigators secretly confiscated the drugs at the container terminal in Aschaffenburg and arrested the men a few days later in Friedberg, Hesse. During the trial, the 23-year-old denied knowing about the drug smuggling. Rather, he assumed that it could be a deal for possibly untaxed electronic devices, according to his defense attorney. Therefore, his lawyer also called for an acquittal in the plea. The verdict against the 23-year-old is not yet final. The case against another accused was separated because the 45-year-old was ill at the start of the trial. The trial is scheduled to begin on March 10th.