They portioned, packed and sent it to the post office. In the trial of five men who are said to have operated an online drug trade together, two defendants have confessed.
Leipzig (dpa/sn) - Two of the men accused in the "Children's Room Dealer" trial before the district court in Leipzig confessed on Thursday. The public prosecutor had accused both of helping to run an online shop through which, among other things, 16.5 kilograms of amphetamine and 2.5 kilograms of hashish were said to have been sold from April 2019. In a statement, the men admitted they helped portion and package the intoxicants. For this, they each received 1,500 euros in cash, and their rent was also paid, their defense lawyers said in court.
One of the two men said he knew the defendant who is accused of being responsible for the logistics of online trading. They met while playing sports, the defendant's defense attorney explained in court. Through him, his client also got to know the 28-year-old defendant, known as the "nursery dealer", who is said to have acted as the head of the group. According to the defendant, orders for the shop were made using the name and address of the helper. Although he tolerated this, he did not initiate the orders himself.
According to both confessions, the alleged helpers were provided with laptops to process the orders. The other defendant stated that after packing the drug orders, he put stamps on them and put them in different mailboxes. According to the prosecutor's office, more than 400 letters are said to have been sent.
In addition, the accused stated that he had only had contact with the second man accused of aiding and abetting. The judge stated that after the confessions of both defendants, he assumed that the trial against them could be shortened. However, their statements would first have to be verified on the basis of the available files. The relationship between the other men, including a lawyer, remained unclear.
The five men, aged between 24 and 42, are accused of being involved to varying degrees in the drug business via the freely accessible web shop. The trial against her opened on January 23. A verdict is not expected before June. The presumption of innocence applies to the accused until the final conclusion of the proceedings. The trial is set to resume on February 9th.
The "nursery dealer" had already been sentenced to seven years in prison in 2015 because he had set up a similar drug shop at the time. He had admitted to selling almost a ton of drugs procured via the dark web. At that time, he packed and shipped the goods from his children's room in Leipzig. His story was the template for a film project by the streaming provider Netflix: the series "How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)", which now has three seasons.
