Drug trafficking via EncroChat: Schleiden man sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment
A man from Schleiden was sentenced by Aachen Regional Court to four years and six months imprisonment after EncroChat data revealed his drug trafficking activity.
Eifel man dealt in three kilograms of drugs via encrypted mobile network
Aachen Regional Court has sentenced a man from Schleiden to four years and six months imprisonment for drug trafficking. According to Rundschau Online, the defendant Ingo G. (name changed) used an encrypted mobile telephone from EncroChat for his drug business – but this very communication proved his undoing.
As part of the Europe-wide EncroChat investigation, criminal police officers came across digital traces leading to G. in the Eifel region. EncroChat was a France-based provider of encrypted communications technology that sold modified smartphones until the end of 2020. French and Dutch authorities cracked the service and brought suspected offenders across Europe into the sights of law enforcement.
In Germany, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) began reviewing several hundred thousand chat logs from September 2020 onwards and launched investigations against approximately 3,000 users. Data protection objections initially delayed the evaluation of the intercepted data. Only in March 2022 did the Federal Court of Justice establish that their use as evidence was permissible.
Just over a year later, on 23 March of this year, G. was arrested. The Third Major Criminal Chamber of Aachen Regional Court subsequently heard two charges for violations of the Narcotic Drugs Act. According to a court spokesman, G. allegedly purchased approximately 500 grams each of marijuana and hashish, as well as about two kilograms of amphetamines via the encrypted chats in order to resell them for profit – a total of roughly three kilograms of narcotics.
The public prosecutor's office had sought a sentence of five years and three months. The court imposed a lighter sentence, which was attributed to the defendant's cooperative behaviour. "He really answered every question put to him by the court and the public prosecutor," the court spokesman said following the verdict. Since G. is himself drug-dependent, he must complete detoxification before beginning his prison sentence.
Source: Rundschau Online