Coke hiding places in luxury sports cars, Europe-wide trade by the ton, a front company for "tropical fruits from South America" - five men are said to have been involved in cocaine deals on a large scale and have now been charged at the Aachen district court.
The alleged mastermind among these defendants: Jürgen Albers (60), known, among other things, as an emigrant to Mallorca in the TV show "Goodbye Germany". As a spokesman for the Aachen district court announced on Friday, the men are accused of trafficking in narcotics - this is punishable by a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Albers' lawyer said his client was willing to cooperate with the court, although he denied the allegations made in the indictment. Details were reserved for the taking of evidence in the main hearing. According to the court spokesman, the trial could begin in September.
According to the indictment, the 60-year-old is said to have been the contact person for a Belgian group involved in international drug trafficking. Albers' alleged task: organizing vehicles with professional smuggling hideouts. Among other things, he is said to have provided a Maserati and a Porsche. Albers is said not to have driven himself, but to have provided the drivers - the accused men aged 32 to 44 - who drove throughout Germany and to Italy, the Czech Republic, Sweden or Portugal.
A total of 62 such trips and 1.4 tons of cocaine are involved. According to the indictment, there should have been 500 to 1000 euros per kilo transported, which the 60-year-old and the driver are said to have shared. Albers is said to have once sold cocaine himself and founded a company trading in tropical fruits from South America. Investigators found 40 kilos of coke in a banana container addressed to the company.
In October 2021, the men were arrested in a Europe-wide campaign, and Albers has been in custody since then. The presumption of innocence applies to the accused until the final conclusion of the proceedings.
